ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 12, Number 47
May 30, 2003

In This Issue: 
Good news regarding UCITA (Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act)! 
 
The Governor of Vermont yesterday (May 29) signed HO 148 (UETA, the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act) into law. This bill included a "UCITA bomb-shelter" provision in its Choice of Law Section.  Such "bomb-shelter" laws have been enacted in four states: Iowa, West Virginia, North Carolina and now Vermont.  The laws are called "bomb-shelters" because they protect the residents and businesses of the enacting state from the reaches of UCITA.  Here's how the bomb-shelters work. 
UCITA is a controversial proposed uniform contract law that sets forth rules for licensing all kinds of computer information products.  ALA and the other major U.S. library associations have been working for several years in a number of state legislatures to oppose the adoption of UCITA, as fundamentally flawed and unfairly biased in favor of the software and information industries and against their customers.  (www.ala.org/UCITA)  Only Virginia and Maryland have passed UCITA. However, many licensors of computer information products are now attempting to mandate Maryland and Virginia law and jurisdiction to settle any and all potential contract disputes.  In other words, anyone - regardless of the state of residence - who enters into a license agreement (contract) could be subject to UCITA if the licensor designates Virginia or Maryland in a choice of law or choice of forum clause. A bomb-shelter law protects the business users, libraries, educational institutions and consumers of the enacting state from the unfair implications of such a choice of law or choice of forum clause.  The law does that by allowing a court of that state which is called upon to settle a contract dispute to void a provision that specifies UCITA as the law to be applied or the place where the dispute must be heard. There is a stand-alone bomb-shelter bill (SB1622) currently under consideration by the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Commerce and Labor. A hearing is scheduled for this Monday, June 2 at 10:30 AM in Room B-2 in the state house in Boston. 



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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.