Uniform Commercial Code 2B the Consumer
A new law will probably be introduced into state legislatures which will govern all contracts for the development, sale, licensing, and support of computer software. This law, which has been in development for about ten years, will be an amendment to the Uniform Commercial Code. The amendment is called Article 2B (Law of Licensing) and is loosely based on UCC Article 2 (Law of Sales), which governs sales of goods in all 50 states. A joint committee of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) and the American Law Institute is drafting the changes to the UCC.The UCC was drafted in the 1950's and currently governs the sales of goods but not products like software, which are licensed, not sold. Basically, when you purchase software, you are purchasing the information and rights to use the software. Article 2B creates standards for licensing these information products, including rules for interpreting warranties, legal remedies, liability and risk. This project began to give consideration to instituting a separate article of the UCC for software and related contracts. Article 2B is designed to bring uniformity across states and across the goods vs. services issue. It is intended to make software cont
Software development companies will benefit from laws that shield sellers from the consequences of their actions which in turn strips away most of the rights of customers who purchase mass-market products. Consumers are aware that software makers need a viable market and some form of shrink-wrap licenses might be necessary. But software makers have taken advantage of these buyers. If we have to accept a unilateral license, the least the software publishers can do is provide reasonable consumer protections. In a software transaction, a material breach or failure to meet specifications is grounds for a lawsuit. The law will sometimes fail to compensate buyers of products that are seriously defective. The proposed article would let companies simply disclaim any liability for defects or lost data beyond the purchase price of the software itself. Consumers need protection from the laws, not proposals like this one that will safeguard software companies from liability. Article 2B reduces liability rather than expanding it. Software publishers are given more power to set their terms than in current law. 9. Ring, Jr., Carlyle C. "Positive Attributes of Article 2B". Products normally come with an implied warranty of merchantability, which states that the product will be fit for ordinary use, it will conform to the claims on the packaging and in the manual, and it will pass without objection in the trade. An implied warranty comes with a product at the time of sale unless it is conspicuously disclaimed. Implied warranties are so easy to disclaim as long as they are conspicuous in the sense that you know the terms. For instance, you buy a software program from a store, take it home and install it and a License Agreement is displayed. It says that there are no warranties, express or implied, and that incidental and consequential damages are excluded. You have a chance to click on "I accept these terms" or "I want a refund". If you choose the latter, you take the product back to the store and get a full refund. 4. Kaner, Cem. "What Is a Serious Bug? Defining material Breach of a Software License Agreement".
Some common words found in the essay are:
Service Rep, UCC UCC, License Agreement, Network Associates, Mass-Market License, Act Products, Improvement Act, Critics Article, Read Installing, article 2b, , software publishers, software companies, uniform commercial code, commercial code, uniform commercial, installing software, consequential damages, license agreement, kaner cem, buy software, incidental consequential damages, read installing software, consequential damages 2b, product software companies,
Approximate Word count = 2804
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
