MunichTHE LONG ARM OF THE LAW

TIME's Bonn Bureau Chief Bruce Van Voorst reports that German officials notified CompuServe's local office of their pornography investigation last month. But because CompuServe was not able to block access to the Usenet group for just it's 220,000 German subscribers, the company instituted its system-wide blackout. "The Munich prosecutor's office confirmed to me that CompuServe had possibly violated Bavarian law by providing access to the material," says Van Voorst. "Bavarian police visited the CompuServe's German office in Unterhaching, a Munich suburb, looking for evidence. Right now you have a lot of German Internet users up in arms."