UCITA has landed in AZ.

These are the "talking points" (I hate that term) from www.4site.org. The
second to the last item is reason enough to kill it, assuming these summary
points are correct.

I still need to read more about this issue...

Alan

UCITA modifies existing contract law to favor large software publishers in
their sales to and contracting with businesses and consumers.

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 software publishers to shut down mission-critical software
remotely without court approval and without incurring liability for the
foreseeable harm caused.

UCITA allows software publishers to prohibit the transfer of software from
one person to another or one company to another -- even in the course of a
merger or acquisition.

UCITA shields software publishers from liability for damage caused by
defects known to the software publisher, but undisclosed to the licensee,
at the time of purchase.

If the consumer wants to sue over a defective product, UCITA allows the
software publisher to restrict legal action to a specific jurisdiction -- a
particular county, state or even a different country.

UCITA threatens library services currently permissible such as
inter-library loan, distance learning programs, archiving and preservation.

UCITA binds purchasers to terms disclosed only after the purchaser pays for
the software, and allows the software publisher to change the terms of the
contract unilaterally by e-mail.

UCITA allows software publishers to legally track and collect confidential
information about personal and business activities of licensees.

UCITA allows software publishers to prohibit public criticism of their
products.

At 08:45 AM 3/2/01 -0800, you wrote:
>If we're going to explain to people why this legislature is a bad idea, we
>need more than that though - We need a detailed explanation of how it will
>affect individual consumers, the corporate consumer, and even the
>state/federal gov't (as a consumer).
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Bill Warner [mailto:wwarner@direct-alliance.com]
>> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2001 9:34 AM
>> To: plug-discuss@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
>> Subject: Fwd: UCITA has landed in AZ.
>>
>>
>> Other than just the general badness of giving more
>> power to the software developer, how does the UCITA
>> affect linux? It seems to me that this can do nothing
>> but make commercial software less appealing and open
>> source more so?????
>>
>> Could you add something about this to your faq. I am
>> not big on legal issues, but if you would explain how
>> this might affect say my Debian installs. I haven't
>> bought software in many years.
>>
>> Question to add to faq:
>>
>> How does UCITA affect open source software?
>>
>> --
>> --
>> Bill Warner
>> Direct Alliance Corp.
>> Unix/Linux Admin.
>>
>> ________________________________________________
>> See http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/navigator-mail.shtml if your
>> mail doesn't post to the list quickly and you use Netscape to
>> write mail.
>>
>> Plug-discuss mailing list - Plug-discuss@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
>> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>>
>
>________________________________________________
>See http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/navigator-mail.shtml if your mail doesn't
post to the list quickly and you use Netscape to write mail.
>
>Plug-discuss mailing list - Plug-discuss@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
>http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>
>
>

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|Alan Dayley             www.adtron.com
|Software Engineer       602-735-0300 x331
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