"They did their very best to implement the law without creating a regulatory nightmare," said John Camp, vice president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

But that would be a regulatory nightmare, not very different than the one faced every day in a thousand ways by Soviet planners.

"A regulatory nightmare," one analyst said.

Getting local zoning approvals for the offices was a "regulatory nightmare," Ms. Walker said, as it can be in all residential developments.

Washington has produced more than one costly regulatory nightmare.

I imagine that's how the case was presented to them, otherwise the merger looks like a regulatory nightmare.

This year, the House voted to repeal the 1937 law while the Senate voted to amend it, arguing that getting rid of it would create a regulatory nightmare.

"The city recognized it was in a regulatory nightmare," Mr. Kovner said.

Despite the efforts some have made, it is another regulatory nightmare.

But those software interfaces are Microsoft's intellectual property, and having the Government police the distribution of them to other companies runs the risk of becoming a regulatory nightmare.