To whom it may concern;

I wish to take this opportunity to comment on the above referenced project and in paticular my opinions on the proposed Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) , as proposed by the software industry. I have been deeply involved in the software industry for a number of years, from the consumer side and the producer side. I think the UTICA proposal is flawed in a number of ways.

First of all, a software package is the only product that a consumer may regularly purchase, that is not owned by the consumer. The producer, in many situations, allows the consumer to 'use' the software, and not 'own' the software, even though the price for the product was set to and agree upon by the parties involved. UTICA wants to take this further by allowing the software producers to 'turn off' the software if the consumer does not ante up more money, or if the consumer does not obtain the software legally. This pratice is an invasion of privacy, and assumes the consumer guilty untill proven otherwise.

Second, UTICA is being proposed by the large software vendors to flush out small business competition. These are monopolistic pratices that these corporations want to enforce upon the true cretivity of the industry, mainly the small software houses. This eventually will lead to a stifiling of the industry and allow individuals form other countries to overwhelm the marketplace. If we look at the current group of large software corporations, they have not invented anything revolutionary, they have just bought it from a much smaller competitor, or they have tried to extend 'open' standards that already exist in the marketplace.

In conclusion I would like to say that I am against UTICA.

Thanks for your time.

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Jerry Walter
902 Fountain St.
Troy, Ohio 45373
937-332-0053
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