Uniform Law
Ashlee Johnson
Business Law
May 25, 2008
One of the first, and most significant, of the U.S. government's attempts to promote uniformity in commercial laws from state to state was the Commerce Clause (Cheeseman, 2006). The Commerce Clause was put in place so that Congress could regulate Commerce of foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian Tribes (Cheeseman, 2006). Similarly the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) purpose is to promote uniformity in the area of computer information transactions. The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) is a contract law covering transactions in digital products and services (Braucher & Henderson, 2001). This consists of transactions in software, electronic books and digital information, and contracts for access to Internet services and on-line databases (Braucher & Henderson, 2001). Its purpose is to creat uniform contractual laws for these products and services (Hecht, 2004).
The major differences between Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code and UCITA are the UCITA authorizes software publishers to change the terms of the contract after purchases, it permits software publishers to sell their products "as is" and to deny responsibility for product flaws (Hecht, 2004).
The legal distinction between selling a product and licensing it is licensing is an agreement that gives someone specific rights to the product. These rights are detailed, precise, and limited. Selling a product to someone gives them complete ownership for a price or in exchange for something else.
The drafters decided to propose the UCITA as a separate and distinct uniform act because it does not just deal with sales but ...