UCITA Fact Sheet

What is UCITA?
Why UCITA is Bad
Who Opposes UCITA?
How Does UCITA Affect Consumers?
What Can I Do?

What is UCITA?

UCITA is a contract law statute that would apply to computer software, multimedia products, computer data and databases, online information, and other such products. It was designed to create a uniform commercial contract law for these products and calls itself "a cyberspace commercial statute." It covers contracts that are generally known as "shrink-wrap licenses."

Why UCITA is Bad?

• UCITA allows software publishers to change the terms of the contract after purchase.
• UCITA allows restrictions that prohibit users from criticizing or publicly commenting on software they purchased.
• UCITA allows software and information products to contain "back door" entrances, potentially making users' systems vulnerable to infiltration by unauthorized hackers.
• UCITA allows software publishers to sell their products "as is" and to disclaim liability for product shortcomings.

Who opposes UCITA?

• 26 State Attorneys General (Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia (Administrator of the Georgia Fair Business Practices Act), Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin)
• Association for Computing Machinery
• Consumers Union
• Society for Information Management
• American Libraries Association
• Americans for Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions (AFFECT)

How Does UCITA Affect Consumers?

• Proposed Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA):Objections From The Consumer Perspective By Jean Braucher, Roger Henderson Professor of Law, University of Arizona

What Can I Do?

AFFECT and the American Libraries Association are the two most effective and active groups opposing UCITA.  They support specific action at http://affect.ucita.com/action.html and http://www.ala.org/washoff/ucita/advocacy.html.  An example of how CPSR has participated in anti-UCITA legislation can be found at http://www.cpsr.org/issues/UCITA.html.