UCITA Pointers for Software Engineers

The short version: a new "model" state law called UCITA will legitimize a large number of anti-consumer software practices. In particular, it makes it legal for a vendor to say that safety critical software is provided "as is," so that if anything goes wrong, their warranty language absolves them of responsibility. That sounds like a dangerous situation to me, so I've spent some time trying to get them to exclude embedded and especially safety-critical software from that law. (The exact story is complex and intricate and involves many additional problems, but that summary works for practical purposes.)

Lecture notes on UCITA for software engineers (.pdf; 2.2 MB), March 2002

My writing on the subject:

• The Problem of Embedded Software (Part 1) January 2001, published in UCC Bulletin (February, March issues)
• The Problem of Embedded Software (Part 2) March 2001, published in UCC Bulletin (April issue)
• Proposed Article 2 Revisions Fall Short for Embedded Software, November 2000 (for UCC 2 drafting committee)
• FTC Workshop on Warranty Protection for High-Tech Products and Services, October 2000.
  • My slide presentation (.pdf; 973 KB)
• My interview with Ed Foster of Infoworld.
• Interview contribution to a Wall Street Journal article
• CMU Tartan article covering a seminar I presented on UCITA, March 2002

Other pointers:

• If you read one paper, this is the one to read: Kaner, Software Engineering & UCITA
• If you want a pro-UCITA point of view as well as access to original source documents start at: UCITA On-Line.
  It contains important raw materials including pointers to the full text of the act, but the coverage of opinions and FAQ is decidedly pro-UCITA.
• Infoworld also has a commentary on UCITA written by computer-savvy reporters.

Phil Koopman: home page | e-mail: koopman@cmu.edu