National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws

211 E. Ontario St., Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60611
tel 312-915-0195, fax 312-915-0187

For Immediate Release

UCITA STANDBY COMMITTEE APPROVES AMENDMENTS

Significant and far-reaching amendments to the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) were approved by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws' Standby Committee on UCITA on December 14, 2001. There are 19 total recommendations in the UCITA Standby Committee Report, which may be found at www.nccusl.org.

"These proposed amendments address the concerns expressed during the November meeting and hearing of the Standby Committee in Washington, D.C." Said Carlyle C. Ring, Jr., Chair of the Standby Committee. Highlights from the 19 recommendations are:

1. Electronic Self-Help Banned. Vendors (called licensors mainly) of digital information, including software, may not disable the use of that information by electronic means if there is a breach of an information contract. Vendors have an expedited remedy for a material breach of contract in a court of law.

2. Consumer Protection Law Trumps UCITA. An information contract is expressly subject to and may not waive any consumer protection provided in state or federal law. Included are laws providing for conspicuous disclosure, unfair or deceptive trade practices laws, and laws relating to electronic signatures and records.

3. Right to Criticize Preserved. Information contract terms that prohibit criticism of an information product are unenforceable. Parties may contract in a manner consistent with other law such as the law of trade secrets.

4. Remedy for Known Material Defect Preserved. Any right to a remedy available for a known material defect of a product is as applicable to an information product as it is to goods or services.

5. Reverse Engineering for Interoperability Expressly Authorized. An information contract may not prohibit reverse engineering that is done for the purposes of making an information product work together with other information products.

6. Special Open-Source Software Provisions. There are special provisions for open-source software contracts.

The NCCUSL will consider the recommendations in its upcoming 2002 meetings. UCITA is the first uniform law governing information contracts. It adopts accepted and familiar principles of commercial contract law, and provides fundamental rules for licensing contracts between users and vendors. It has been enacted, to date, in Maryland and Virginia.

For further information, please contact:

Carlyle C. Ring, Jr., phone 202-326-5049, email ccring@ober.com
John McCabe, phone 312-915-0195, email jmmccabe@nccusl.org
Michael Kerr, phone 312-915-0195, email mkerr@nccusl.org
Katie Robinson, phone 312-915-0195, email krobinson@nccusl.org

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws is now in its 110th year. The organization comprises more than 300 lawyers, judges, and law professors, appointed by the states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, to draft proposals for uniform and model laws and work toward their enactment in their legislatures. Since its inception in 1892, the group has promulgated more than 200 acts, among them such bulwarks of state statutory law as the Uniform Commercial Code, the Uniform Probate Code, and the Uniform Partnership Act.