National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws

211 E. Ontario St., Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60611
tel 312-915-0195, fax 312-915-0187

For Immediate Release

VIRGINIA LEADS NATION IN ENACTING NEW LEGAL RULES
FOR COMPUTER INFORMATION TRANSACTIONS

March 15, 2000 - Virginia has become the first state in the nation to adopt a new act creating a uniform commercial contract law for computer software, data, and online contracts, covering everything from the purchase of computer information products online to consumers' agreements with Internet providers. The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) was signed into law by Gov. James S. Gilmore III on March 14. UCITA will become effective in Virginia July 1, 2001.

Information technology accounts for more than one-third of the nation's economic growth and is the most rapidly expanding component of the U.S. economy. Until now, however, there has been no law that provides clear, consistent uniform rules for the intangibles of computer information transactions. UCITA, drafted and approved by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) in 1999, lays down clear rules for electronic contracting that are a major improvement over the status quo for businesses and consumers alike. UCITA makes it possible for states to provide a neutral and predictable legal framework for transactions in computer information and greater legal certainty for the millions of transactions which are occurring daily under less than clear legal rules.

"The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act addresses a long-standing need for uniform law treatment of software and other computer information contracts," says Carlyle C. Ring, Jr., chairman of the committee that drafted UCITA, and a uniform law commissioner from Virginia. "As the United States moves from an economy centered around transactions in goods to an information economy, the need has grown dramatically for coherent and predictable legal rules to support these contracts that underlie that economy."

Over the last several decades, licensing has developed as a form of contract to facilitate electronic transactions of information to users. At the same time, licensing protects software and information vendors who may invest millions of dollars in creating and assembling the information, which otherwise is easily copied and disseminated.

Licensing gives publishers the ability to protect their economic interests, structure types of products, and respond to market demands. Computer technology has made new information products available to customers at a rapidly declining cost.

UCITA is the first uniform law governing licensing contracts. UCITA adopts accepted and familiar principles of contract law, setting the rules for what law governs, how to create electronic contracts, and what default rules apply in Internet contracts.

The information industry has grown exponentially in the last decade and already exceeds most manufacturing sectors in size. The numbers of transactions in information and their dollar value are immense. UCITA provides a single set of rules which can be applied across the many industries which provide computer information products, bringing U.S. commercial law into the information age.