1-5-96. W$Jaw: "High Tech Zaps German Privacy Laws. CompuServe Case Shows Difficulty of Enforcement." The growing popularity of the Internet and other multimedia services poses a major challenge to Germany's tough data-protection legislation. The personal information that is freely given and used for marketing purposes in the U.S. is off limits in Germany. The CompuServe case demonstrates just how difficult it is becoming for national regulators to control the flow of information. This is particularly true in Germany, where a raft of legislation is in force designed to avoid-any repeat of the Nazi-era abuse of data, as well as the dissemination of pornography and extremist propaganda. The nation's internal security services are already struggling to combat the sophisticated use of computers by neo-Nazi groups. Following a recent ban on several such organizations, right-wing extremists have been sending coded messages of racial hatred to one another through a system of computer mailboxes known as the Thule network. "CompuServe Seeks a High-Tech Answer To Fracas Over Bar on Adult Material." Industry executives said the move sets a bad precedent that could invite still more countries to demand their own diverging standards of what is acceptable. Critics further maintained that the approach simply won't work. In addition, critics voiced concern that CompuServe's efforts will lead to on-line services being forced to take responsibility for information they didn't create. 1-5-95, WashPo: "Worldwide Net, Worldwide Trouble" [Editorial] The borderless quality of the Internet, one of its great strengths, can now be seen also as a source of unprecedented and unnerving international liability. Just as "community standards" were used in Tennessee to prosecute two California-based bulletin board operators on obscenity charges a few years back, big commercial providers like CompuServe or America Online could find themselves facing charges based on the very different legal systems of a Germany or France or, for that matter, an Iran. Trio: ZAP_law