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16 Berk. Tech. L.J. 461 (2001)
The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act

handle is hein.journals/berktech16 and id is 473 raw text is: COMPUTER INFORMATION: CONTRACT ENFORCEABILITY
THE UNIFORM COMPUTER INFORMATION
TRANSACTIONS ACT
By Brian D. McDonald
The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA)1
creates a uniform commercial code for computer information transactions.
The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws
(NCCUSL), the drafting body for UCITA, approved and recommended
UCITA for enactment in all fifty states in July 1999.2 UCITA provisions
cover a wide variety of topics related to computer information including,
but not limited to, standard software licenses, contracts for the custom de-
velopment of computer programs, licenses to access online databases,
website user agreements, and agreements for most Internet-based informa-
tion.3 The NCCUSL passed UCITA in hopes of clarifying the law govern-
ing these computer information transactions and making the law uniform
among the various jurisdictions.4
Since UCITA's inception, efforts to establish a uniform state law gov-
erning computer information transactions have been fraught with contro-
versy.5 State legislators have severely criticized UCITA provisions. As of
January 2001, only two states had adopted UCITA while most other states
had either refused to consider it or had tabled it indefinitely.6 This Note
tracks the most significant of these legislative developments and analyzes
their likely effect on the future of UCITA.
Part I outlines the history of UCITA and the most salient issues sur-
rounding its drafting. Part II discusses the three most significant responses
taken by the states in response to UCITA: Virginia (nearly full adoption),
Maryland (qualified adoption), and Iowa (adoption of a bomb-shelter
© 2001 Regents of the University of California.
1. UNIF.  COMPUTER    INFO.   TRANSACTIONS   ACT,   available  at
http://www.law.upenn.edu/bil/ulc/ucita/ucitaFinalO0.pdf  (Sep. 29, 2000) [hereinafter
UCITA].
2. See Carol A. Kunze, UCITA, at http://www.ucitaonline.comUCITA.html (last
revised Feb. 8, 2001).
3. See UCITA, supra note 1, Prefatory Note, at 1-2.
4. Richard Raysman & Peter Brown, Will States Enact Uniform Software Licens-
ing Act?, 222 N.Y. L.J. 3 (1999).
5. See Laura Gasaway, States Begin to Adopt UCITA-Model Legislation for Li-
censing, INFO. OUTLOOK, June 1, 2000, at 53-54.
6. See Carol A. Kunze, What's Happening to UCITA in the States, at
http://www.ucitaonline.com/whathap.html (last revised Feb. 6, 2001).

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