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ABA Withdraws Consideration of UCITA
Cognito writes "AFFECT, Americans for Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions, is reporting that the American Bar Association has withdrawn its consideration for endorsing a resolution to approve UCITA, the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act. This is a good thing. It's interesting to note that a recently filed law suit would have been prohibited if UCITA were endorsed and adopted as a common law."
AFFECT. ucita.com.
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 11, 2003
Contact: Carol Ashworth
202-628-8410/ 1-800-941-8478
AFFECT CELEBRATES WITHDRAWAL OF UCITA FROM ABA
CONSIDERATION
Seattle, Feb. 11 -- AFFECT, Americans for Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions,
expressed gratification with the withdrawal of a resolution seeking approval of the
Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) from the ABA House of
Delegates.
"Implicit in the decision not to push for a vote was the recognition that the ABA was not
going to approve UCITA as appropriate for enactment by the states," said AFFECT
President Miriam Nisbet. In recent weeks, major sections of the ABA, including
Business Law, Intellectual Property Law, Litigation, and Tort Trial and Insurance
Practice, voted to defer indefinitely or to reject the UCITA resolution placed before the
ABA at its Midyear Meeting. Also, the ABA's Standing Committee on Law and
National Security last week informed the National Conference of Commissioners on
Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL), the sponsor of UCITA, that the committee could not
support UCITA because the act's provisions could "present a significant security
concern, potentially affecting key aspects of our nation's critical infrastructure." In
addition, the president of the American Law Institute recently advised the House of
Delegates that he could not support the effort to have the ABA approve UCITA. ALI
normally co-sponsors uniform laws with NCCUSL but had withdrawn from
recommending UCITA in 1999 because of concerns that the act did not meet ALI
standards in several key areas.
Nisbet said that she was pleased to hear NCCUSL assure the House of Delegates that it
has no intention of bringing the act back to the ABA. AFFECT believes the inability of
NCCUSL to win approval for UCITA from the ABA this year will lead to its rejection in
Oklahoma and other states where it is currently under consideration. Nisbet said, "The
failure to pass the ABA hurdle after almost four years of 'fixes' underscores the fact that
it is time for UCITA to go back to the drawing board."
AFFECT is a broad-based national coalition of consumers, retail and manufacturing
businesses, financial institutions, technology professionals and librarians opposed to
UCITA. AFFECT members have been following UCITA for the past decade and the
coalition has been involved in every state where UCITA has been legislatively active.
Americans for Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions (AFFECT)
1301 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Suite 403
Washington, D. C. 20004
V-202-628-8410
F-202-628-8419
www.affect
The software purchased would no longer belong to the buyer.
UCITA allows consumers to become licensees who are bound to the terms of the contract provided in "shrink-wrap" products or "click-on" agreements.
UCITA allows restrictions on use to be revealed after purchase.
UCITA allows restrictions that prohibit users from criticizing or publicly commenting on software they purchased.
UCITA puts consumers at the mercy of software publishers to "blackmail" users for more fees by their unhindered ability to disable or remove their product for unspecified "license violations."
How the fuck that law was even thought up in the first place is beyond me, let alone taken seriously and implemented in two states (Maryland and Virginia). This is a severe intrusion into consumer rights and privacy and as far as I can see trys to restrict what, when and where you can do with software as much as possible.
For some good background, read Ed Foster's columns in InfoWorld. This guy has (thanfully) been waging a war in print against UCITA since it was first proposed. Here's his latest column on this very topic (ABA consideration of UCITA):
Gripe Line Column from Jan 31 2003