ZAP_law

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

   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