Slashdot Mirror
Fighting UCITA
On Oct. 1, UCITA will become law in Maryland (Virginia passed a version of UCITA too, but delayed the effective date of the law until July 1, 2001). Infoworld has an article about Iowa considering "bomb-shelter" legislation to protect Iowans from UCITA-based laws passed in other states, and offers a few helpful hints for software purchasers. My suggestion is this: don't buy software from any UCITA-state company, or any national company whose licensing says you are bound by the laws of a UCITA-state. There's simply no reason to take risks like that.
But there's something interesting about UCITA, the idea that someone can be held to a "clickwrap", or "shrinkwrap" when the usual contractual element of "meeting of minds" may in fact not be present.
Send a 6 year old into a s/w store to buy a copy of "Learning to Read v1.0". If they have the cash, the store will certainly sell the s/w, but did the kid read the shrinkwrap? What if (obvious in this hypothetical) they can't read?. Were they *legally competent* to agree to the terms? Can the store clerk make those determinations?
I suggest that many of us who operate web sites put up notices: "by entering this web site (beyond the main page) you agree ..."
If a "clickwrap" agreement can be made to stick, then stick it to them!. We have a lot more of the web than they do, they must agree to our terms to access it.
And our terms should be to make UCITA onerous, so that it's tossed out.
A brief discussion occured on the bill after its Maryland passage at TECHNOCRAT.NET. People might also be interested on what Del. Kumar Barve, chair of the House subcommitee that examined the bill, had to say:
I'm not saying that the Maryland law is perfect, just that you ought to know what your talking about before you express an opinion.
Bob Kopp
I don't expect the UCITA laws to last very long.
We mostly portray UCITA as software companies vs. consumers. But when it comes down to it, it's a way for big software companies to shaft other companies, including smaller software companies.
Further, my limited experience with jury duty leads me to believe that the vast majority of lawsuits in the USA are suits between two companies, rather than a suit between a consumer and a company.
The net result is that a few very powerful software companies have set themselves up to shaft all but the largest companies in the state (who will exempt themselves by buying under a non-shrinkwrap contract). Small businesses cannot afford to operate under the conditions imposed by UCITA, and it happens that small businesses have enormous political clout in the USA.
I suspect that we'll soon see some suits against UCITA companies from small businesses, at which point either the UCITA will be found unconstitutional and struck down, or else the small businesses will be told that the law requires them to bend over and learn to enjoy it, at which point a sort of grass roots movement with much more clout than we geeks have will come into play, and state legislators will earn a spot in Guiness for their astonishing speed at backpedaling.
States are smart to want to appeal to big high tech industries. But what will they gain if the rest of their businesses move to Iowa? Someone in Iowa deserves kudos for figuring this out.
--
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
If anybody's looking for a good day to protest UCITA (or even out-of-control intellectual property rights in general), I would recommend May Day, on May 1, 2000. Chances are, if you're near a relatively large city, they're going to be having a May Day celebration.
The focus of May Day is going to be anti-globalisation/anti-corporate rule, with an emphasis on labor rights. UCITA ties in with this because most of these bills are meant to help out a few corporate interests despite screwing people (I refuse to call people "consumers").
I, personally, would love to see an anti-copyright contingent at one of the mayday celebrations.
Here's a couple links for you:
http://www.mayday2k.org - Has a list of which cities have celebrations planned, as well as links to the history of May Day and contact information.
http://mayday.indymedia.org - The same autonomous collective that brought you independant coverage of the Seattle and Washington D.C. anti-globalization protests will be helping to cover May Day around the world.
Even if you're not interested in protesting, I'd recommend you check May Day out anyways, since it should be just an all around fun time.
Michael Chisari
mchisari@usa.net
With all the obvious opposition to laws such as the UCITA and the DMCA so evident in places like Slashdot, it's a wonder to me that people haven't stormed the Washington Mall demanding that their rights cease to be trampled on. Perhaps the reason for it is the same that made the Clinton Impeachment trial so much of a non-issue. America's economy is better than it's ever been, and no law maker wants to take responsibility for a crash by making the wrong decision.
In this case, Maryland wants to keep software companies happy and ensure that their economic success continues even more. Consumers are apathetic to a blatant loss of their rights because they too are blinded by economic boom. Americans have become content with the status quo, and see little reason to protest "business as usual" in their state capitals when everything has so far been working out so well.
The only way the American people will become concerned enough about this and other loss of rights will be for them to lose their contentment and realize what's actually going on. Until then, these grevious errors in our lawmakers' judgement will continue to go relatively unopposed by the general public.