The fate of UCITA

In truth, the opposition to UCITA goes far beyond consumers, librarians, and insurance companies. I won’t bore you with the list of all the different companies and organizations that have taken a stance against UCITA, but I will point out that just because an organization doesn’t bother to reaffirm its position every time NCCUSL inserts a subhead doesn’t mean its concerns have been addressed. For example, just a year ago a sizable majority of the state Attorneys General flatly declared UCITA unfixable, but proponents ever since have been suggesting that position can be dismissed as out-of-date.

But if there’s one thing I want you to understand about the scope and breadth of the opposition to UCITA, it’s that it does not only come from the customer side of the equation. A fact that often gets overlooked is the overwhelming way in which societies of computer professionals have roundly condemned UCITA. The two most prestigious engineering groups in computing the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) have consistently taken strong positions against UCITA. So have numerous groups representing other technology professionals.

Why do those who design, produce, service, and support IT products so adamantly object to a law that supposedly protects the fruits of their labors? Because they understand the actual consequences of UCITA in the real world of high technology: It will make the existing problem of poor-quality software much worse; it will leave American IT customers with fewer choices and weaken the competitiveness of American products in world markets; and it will undermine attempts to improve the security of our vulnerable technology infrastructure.

Is that all that’s stake in your vote next week? No, there’s more, but this will have to do for starters. Let me leave you with one question you should make sure you have satisfactorily answered by the proponents: what real-world problem does UCITA actually fix? In all my years of observing the decidedly odd process that has created this thing you’re about to vote on, I’ve never heard a straight answer to that question. If you can’t get one either, I hope you will have the wisdom to send NCCUSL back to the drawing board. We and that’s a very big we are counting on you.