20 July, 1999 Gene Lebrun, President
Dear Mr. Lebrun: On behalf of the IEEE United States of America (IEEE-USA) and its 240,000 U.S. members who are electrical, electronics, and computer engineers, we wish to express our concerns with the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act (UCITA). We believe that UCITA is an important matter. IEEE-USA has been actively involved in the UCC2B/UCITA drafting process over the past four years. We have sent several letters to the Reporter and the Drafting Committee, and IEEE representatives have attended some of the Drafting Committee meetings. Without question, the draft has improved over time. Unfortunately, many problem areas still remain as we've presented to NCCUSL in our prior letters. These include: Self Help (in which publishers can deactivate software at their option even when lives may be endangered); Undermining Intellectual Property and other Federal legislation and case law (e.g. reverse engineering); Disclaiming of Warranties; Choice of Law and Forum; Limitation of Transfers; and unexpected Use of Terms (when terms are used in a manner different from that which is customary in the software industry, confusion is most likely). We have been providing meaningful, thoughtful, and timely commentary in good faith and believe that the process the drafting committee of NCCUSL has been following has not been responsive and has not adequately considered our concerns. The process is not conducive to non-corporate observers who do not have adequate funding to attend every meeting. We continue to believe that the current draft will result in undue concentration of power in licensors and content providers at the expense of consumers and engineers to the detriment of competition and innovation. We do not believe that the NCCUSL should adopt UCITA at its July 1999 meeting. We believe that instead, the drafting committee should be directed to continue refining UCITA and address the process problems we have previously documented. If the NCCUSL decides that UCITA can not go back to the committee, then NCCUSL should treat UCITA as a model law rather than a uniform law, thereby encouraging the individual states to correct the defects as they consider the matter. We appreciate the hard work done by the Drafting Committee, and look forward to the promulgation in the future of a UCITA we can support. Sincerely, cc: Mr. Carlyle C. Ring, Jr., Chair, Drafting Committee on UCITA
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