Users look to FTC for help on reining in UCITA
UCITA
10/27/2000; 3:07:09 PM

'An unnamed software vendor that [Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Jersey] is currently negotiating with over a licensing deal is adamantly insisting that a version of the law enacted in Maryland at the start of this month be applied to the contract. Arne Larsen, information systems director at the 5,000-employee insurer, said the vendor is an anomaly among the many he deals with on software licensing. But that's of little comfort to him, he added.

'UCITA -- the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act -- is "a one-sided law," Larsen said this week. "It protects the software vendors. It does nothing for us." Such sentiments are among the reasons why Larsen and other users support the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) decision to begin exploring software-licensing practices at a two-day workshop that began here today.'

In the battle of corporate interest versus corporate interest, who will win?

Regarding the previous story about the DMCA, how about a UCITA-enforcable license provision that still forbids looking at the ban list, or bypassing malfunctioning security software?