Holger Voss

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Holger Voss is an internet activist from Münster . One of the most famous criminal proceedings against him took place because of an opinion on the Internet; He was acquitted of the allegations of approval of criminal offenses . As a result, he became known because he successfully brought a lawsuit against his provider T-Online , in which it was established that the storage of Internet connection data practiced by T-Online was illegal.

Criminal proceedings for "approval of criminal offenses"

In the discussion forum of the online magazine Telepolis , Voss reacted sarcastically to another discussion participant's contribution that glorified violence. Voss' sarcastically worded equality of war and terrorism was initially interpreted as approving murder ( Section 140 of the Criminal Code ), and he was sentenced to 1,500 euros. He was only acquitted of the allegations in a criminal trial. In his plea, Voss argued that wars like the war in Afghanistan , which was fought with German support, follow the same logic of violence as the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the USA .

The starting point of the discussion was an article by Telepolis journalist Harald Neuber from June 20, 2002. Neuber reported on a massacre of Afghan prisoners of war by the Afghan Northern Alliance , which was allegedly supported by soldiers from the USA and Great Britain . A stranger praised this massacre and the perpetrators, "who dare to pull out the roots of evil and completely wipe it off the face of the planet". Holger Voss, who sees himself as an anti-militarist , satirically twisted this polemic by substituting the USA for the murdered prisoners of war.

The case attracted particular attention because Voss was initially fined a heavy fine (1,500 euros), although his text was clearly recognizable as sarcasm , although the sarcastic nature of the text was pointed out in his contribution and although the public prosecutor and court were known to that Holger Voss's contribution to the discussion was not meant literally. The public prosecutor and the judge still wanted Voss to be convicted of "approving murder": "For conditional intent , however, it is sufficient that the impartial reader can understand the statement as approval."

Connection data storage

The criminal case against Holger Voss received special attention because the provider T-Online logged connection data of its customer Voss illegally and contrary to the data protection regulations (in particular § 96 TKG ). These data were used in the criminal proceedings to prove Voss authorship of the opinion in question (which he had signed in full name).

Lawsuit against T-Online

In April 2003, Voss reported this connection data storage to the Darmstadt regional council, which oversaw data protection via T-Online. There, however, the behavior of T-Online was approved. As a result, the Federal Republic of Germany was officially requested by the EU Commission to change the organization of data protection supervision.

Voss then filed a lawsuit with the Darmstadt District Court . On July 1, 2005, the district court ruled that it is illegal to save the IP address assigned to him as it is not required for billing. Both T-Online and Holger Voss appealed the judgment .

On January 25, 2006, the Darmstadt Regional Court announced its judgment in the second instance : The appeal by T-Online was rejected, the appeal by Holger Voss was partially granted. The Darmstadt Regional Court sentenced T-Online not only to immediately delete the IP address assigned to an Internet connection, but also to no longer collect the amount of data transferred. Both result from § 96 TKG. The Darmstadt Regional Court did not allow an appeal against his judgment .

T-Online tried with a non-admission complaint at the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) that an appeal should still be allowed. On October 26, 2006, the BGH dismissed this complaint. The judgment of the Darmstadt Regional Court thus became final .

After the BGH decision

After the BGH decision, Holger Voss asked other T-Online customers and also the customers of other Internet providers to request the immediate deletion of their IP address from their providers and, if necessary, to file a corresponding lawsuit. As a result, T-Online first assured other customers that their IP addresses would be deleted immediately; a little later, T-Com switched to storing IP addresses for only seven days (instead of 80 days after the invoice was sent, as was previously the case) .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Criminal order against Holger Voss for approving murder .
  2. ^ A b Voss, Holger: Process declaration in criminal proceedings for approving murder
  3. ↑ Neuber, Harald: The Massacre That May Not Be , in: Telepolis, June 20, 2002
  4. ↑ Engine_of_Aggression (pseudonym): It hits the right people! , in: Telepolis-Forum, June 21, 2002
  5. ↑ Voss, Holger: EoA as of September 11, 2001 .: Congratulations! Evil has been uprooted! , in: Telepolis-Forum, June 21, 2002
  6. ↑ Krempl, Stefan: Brussels demands independence of the data protection authorities , in: Heise Newsticker , December 22, 2006
  7. ^ AG Darmstadt, judgment of July 1, 2005 ( Memento of October 27, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), Az.300 C 397/04, full text.
  8. ^ LG Darmstadt, judgment of January 25, 2006 ( Memento of July 21, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), Az. 25 S 118/2005, full text.
  9. ^ BGH decision of October 26, 2006 (PDF; 783 kB), Az. III ZR 40/06, full text.
  10. ↑ Model lawsuit against the storage of connection data in reserve by Internet providers
  11. ↑ Kleinz, Torsten: T-Online partially deletes connection data upon request , in: Heise Newsticker, November 21, 2006
  12. ↑ T-Com stores IP addresses only for seven days , in: Heise Newsticker, February 20, 2007
personal data
SURNAME Voss, Holger
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Voss, Holger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German plaintiff against data retention
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century