United States (change)
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The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) was created to help codify and make consistent the laws among the states concerning transactions involving computer information, particularly the licensing of software.
In developing the proposed act, the National Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Law (NCCUSL), among other things, looked to rulings handed down by state and federal courts and put them into a unified form. It is then recommended to the individual states for enactment.
It is important to recognize that UCITA is intended as 'gap-filling' law. That is, its provisions generally apply only to supplement and fill gaps in software licensing contracts. However, as the act has evolved, it now may include mandatory warranty provisions and similar consumer protection measures. In its present form, the act continues to permit certain onerous behavior by software vendors such as self-help, the ability to 'turn off' software for non-payment.
Because of the involvement of major proprietary software vendors in its drafting, it's no surprise that UCITA has met with widespread opposition from consumers and the open source community. It lacks fundamental consumer protections and it does not adequately recognize open source software.
On a regular basis, NCCUSL meets to review new proposals for changes in the model act. For the upcoming November drafting session, Red Hat has taken the opportunity to submit three amendments:
Red Hat recognizes that these changes may not address all of the concerns of consumers or open source advocates, and it's possible that Red Hat will support the amendments being suggested by other parties. Even if Red Hat's proposed amendments are made, it does not mean we will automatically support UCITA's adoption. We're simply trying to advocate minimum, fundamental protections required by the open source community.
UCITA isn't anti-open source by design. It was simply written before the widespread adoption of open source technology. Regardless, UCITA does contain elements that suggest it favors the software industry. Several software industry lobbying groups such as the Business Software Alliance support the act, as well as individual companies like Microsoft, America Online, and Lotus.
Currently two states have adopted UCITA: Maryland and Virginia. In Maryland we lobbied for changes to the act to recognize and protect open source software.
Among the topics the committee will likely consider in the November draft session is the extension of mandatory warranties. Advocates hope this will help make UCITA more consumer friendly.
Other proposals will likely include the right to freely comment on the performance of software, including benchmarking, and the right to reverse engineer for purposes of identifying and correcting security flaws.
While we don't expect to remedy every issue with UCITA, we do believe it's important to participate in the process. We want to ensure the act doesn't become more problematic for the open source community than it already is.
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More information:
UCITA Online
http://www.ucitaonline.com/
InfoWorld Special Report: UCITA
http://www.infoworld.com/ucita/
The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act
http://www.law.upenn.edu/bll/ulc/ucita/ucita200.htm