ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 11, Number 63
August 6, 2002

In This Issue:  UCITA amendments pass at NCCUSL Annual Conference 
amidst much controversy
 
The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) made a 
wobbly leap over another hurdle on its way back to state 
legislatures last week at the annual meeting of the National 
Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) held in 
Tucson.  NCCUSL is the body that promulgated UCITA in the summer 
of 1999 and has since promoted its adoption by state 
legislatures.  
 
The UCITA Standby Committee, the NCCUSL committee responsible for 
drafting UCITA, presented 38 amendments for final approval by the 
full body of NCCUSL. Although the amendments did pass on the floor 
as expected, and were adopted by NCCUSL at its business meeting on 
August 1, there were hours of debate during which commissioners 
made additional recommendations for more changes. More 
significantly, approximately 40 commissioners signed a petition to 
the NCCUSL Executive Committee asking that UCITA be downgraded 
from a uniform law to a model law.  Such a change would have 
removed NCCUSL's commitment to fully promote the passage of UCITA. 
Although the effort to change the status of UCITA was ultimately 
postponed, there was visible evidence of considerable 
disenchantment with UCITA within NCCUSL. 
 
Miriam Nisbet, ALA Legislative Counsel and president of the 
Americans  for Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions (AFFECT), the 
national coalition opposing UCITA, attended the conference with a 
contingent of AFFECT members.  AFFECT representatives made clear 
to the NCCUSL leadership that even with the new changes to UCITA, 
the law remains fundamentally flawed and that AFFECT will continue 
to oppose UCITA's passage in the states.  
 
It is expected that NCCUSL will continue to work with the American 
Bar Association (ABA) in order to pave the way for ABA approval of 
UCITA in early 2003. An ABA Working Group appointed to study UCITA 
recommended a number of changes to UCITA earlier this year. The 
Working Group also made an overall observation that UCITA as 
currently drafted is complex and unclear and should be redrafted 
to make it easier to understand and to use.  
 
It is not too early to organize your association's efforts to 
fight UCITA in 2003.




******
ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the 
American Library Association Washington Office. All materials 
subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be 
reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with 
appropriate credits.

To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo 
[your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to 
http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon.  To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send 
the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON 
archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. 

ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, 
Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 
toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web 
site: http://www.ala.org/washoff.  Executive Director: Emily 
Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, 
Director; Camille Bowman, Mary Costabile, Don Essex, Patrice 
McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology 
Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie 
Russell, Claudette Tennant. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.