Now the Internet has made this challenge immensely more difficult, as companies seek to manage a global distribution system while operating under a frequently bewildering set of local customs and laws. Mere months ago, the industry had faint hope of achieving any sort of near-term uniform regulation. Finally, the American Law Institute, a lawyers group that works with the national conference of commissioners, gave up and announced that it would table Article 2B until it could be substantially reworked. Then, surprisingly, the conference of commissioners stepped in and said it would push ahead with the software regulations as a free-standing law. Opponents now wonder if they may have won the battle, but lost the war.
Software companies say critics are grossly exaggerating the impact of the law.
Initially, the article allowed software companies to decide what remedies it would offer if software failed to work as advertised. It limited their liability if the software caused actual damage. It even seemingly gave software contracts supremacy over consumer rights first established under federal copyright law, limiting how software buyers could modify their software to make sure it worked with other applications. Concerns from consumer groups were met with a mixture of reworked language and acknowledgement of the primacy of federal and state laws governing copyright and consumer protection. Probably not,'' said John M. McCabe, legislative director and legal counsel for the conference of commissioners.