National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws

Established in 1892, NCCUSL stands for the Uniform Law Commission of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, is composed of lawyers and law professors. The states had a need to provide legislation, without a partisan view, they looked to the NCCUSL to help the achieve legislation that is unbiased and fair. As electronic data interchange became a way to do business, and the information highway developed, the NCCUSL adopted the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) to give consistent guidelines governing computer licensing.

The United States of America Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 created a power struggle between Congress and the states, by allowing Congress to regulate all areas of commerce. This regulation included all states, foreign nations, and Indian Tribes. This clause of the Constitution was the government's first attempt to have uniformity in commerce laws.

Prior to the UCITA, the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) was written. Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) regulates selling, shipment and delivery of goods. The UCITA establishes a set of comprehensive rules for licensing computer information. This applies to software and other forms of computer information that can be identified clearly.

As the UCC regulates sales and the UCITA regulates licensing, one must understand the difference between the two. The definition of sales is a transfer of ownership; however, licensing is an agreement allowing someone to use your property. A sale is complete once the terms of the agreement have been fulfilled. Licensing allows the company or individual to remain ownership of property. These properties include and are not limited to trademarks, logos and computer software for example.

I think because of the differences in sales and licensing, and the increase in the use of computers; along with many questions remaining today about the use of computers and software, the writers believed there was a need to have to separate regulations to cover all areas.

References

Uniform Law Commission. (n.d.). Uniform Law Commission. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from http://www.nccusl.org/Default.aspx

Commerce clause | LII / Legal Information Institute. (n.d.). LII | LII / Legal Information Institute. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/commerce_clause

name:. (n.d.). SELECT LIBRARY. Credo Reference Home. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from http://credoreference.com/advanced.do