UCITA: A Disaster in Progress By treating a transaction for software as a license rather than a sale, the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act would cost us all dearly

13 uy some software and install it on your computer. Unfortunately for you, during the installation, you are told that you will be bound by a contract that you could not read when you selected and paid for the software! The contract prohibits you from criticizing the software in print or on your Web site; selling it—or even giving it away—when you no longer need it; or reverse-engineering it to search for or repair defects or security holes. You might even be prohibited from using the software jointly with another person sitting with you at a single computer. Welcome to the new world of commercial software, in which you never actually own software—only the right to use it in ways that meet with the manufacturer’s express approval. In fact, simply opening a package and using a product can bring significant legal consequences. Although not all of us live in this world yet, some already do, and software companies are eager for the rest of us to join them. In the United States, the vehicle by which they hope to get us there is the 336-page Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA), a law that was adopted in 2000 by the state legislatures in Virginia and Maryland but has failed, so far, in every other state that has considered it. The bill is expected to be resubmitted to state legislatures in slightly modified form, probably beginning in October. Against the grain