UCITA Fight Comes to Texas

ILikeRed writes "Well, you mentioned this story more than once, and even gave advice on fighting it. But now the UCITA has come to Texas, my home state, so I am hoping you will send out the word, so we can show that people do not want this legislation, even if it is in Compaq's back yard. And here I thought they were supposed to be a company that got it - can anyone submit a full list of companies supporting this thing? Might be a good cause for a boycott...."

Comments

Contrary viewpoint

[PD]

Why is this legislation so terrible? Companies need to examine their legal obligations to determine their risk. If the risk of having your software stop working is too great a risk, then don't take it. Find alternatives.

Slews of Microsoft shops will suddenly see the reason why proprietary software sucks.

Moderators: if you think this is a troll, you're on crack. I'm serious about this.

Effective was to fight UTICA...

[trims]

As previously mentioned, the UTICA regulations are perhaps the worst thing ever to come out of a committee. Period.

what everyone seems to foget is the Achille's Heel of the proposals: Only Large Software Companies Benefit. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, else is hurt.

Look at some of the opposition groups/members:

• Boeing Aircraft and General Motors - two of the biggest companies in the world.
• The entire small-to-medium-size software company industry
• The Small Business Administration
• The American Law Association (particularly, contract lawyers)
• Most known Consumer Groups
• The San Francisco Cronicle, New York Times, Boston Globe, and the entire Newspaper Publisher's Assoication of America. In addition, virtually the entire computer/technology press has voiced strong objections.

While most people (including the representatives) seem to assume that Business(tm) is all for UTICA, this is simply NOT TRUE. And therein lies the way to effectively fight it:

1. Get the text and the Bill number that lays out UTICA in your local Legislature.
2. Take it to your company's Legal team, and explain to them why this is such a horrible thing. Use all the arguments from the various anti-UTICA sites around (I'm not going to post them here, because others have). Unless your company has deaf, dumb, and blind lawyers (and let's be honest, most corporate lawyers aren't stupid), they'll look at the Bill, listen to your arguments, and turn deathly pale as they realize what it will do to the company.
3. Get your company to write a strong letter of disapproval to the Legislature. Get a copy.
4. Take the Copy of your company's letter, and go to a couple of other companies you deal with, or even just patronize, and that use computers to run the company (and which company doesn't these days). Ask to talk to a manager. If you can, talk to someone senior. Explain the whole thing, and show them the letter from your company.
5. Get other companies to either sign on to the letter of disapproval from your company, or write their own. Get them sent.
6. Compile a list of the companies you get to disapprove.
7. Repeatedly call and write your Legeslative rep with the full details of why UTICA is bad, the general opposition, then include all the local companies you know of that have signed off on hating the bill.

If you can get something like this reasonably organized, when your rep gets 2 dozen angry letters from companies of all sizes and industries in his district, he's going to be reallllly cautious about the Bill, and that's what you want - serious debate, not a rubber-stamp. Because, in a serious debate, UTICA will lose. There are too many opposition members. UTICA's only hope is to ram it through (or sneak it in) before the opposition can organize. Don't Let That Happen.

-Erik, who is busily practicing what I preach here in Silicon Valley.