International Issues and Discrimination
Before the UCC and the UCITA, what was one of the first, and most significant, of the U.S.
government’s attempts to promote uniformity in commercial laws from state to state? (Hint: think of commerce and Constitution.)The United States government had already made significant steps in instituting appropriate control mechanisms for commerce related activities. This was essentially provided by the Commercial clause of the United States constitution. According to the commercial clause, the Federal Government had exclusive jurisdiction when it came to regulation of commerce between states (New York State Court of Appeals, 2006). This clause gave Congress the right to exercise exclusive powers more than the states when it came to handling commercial related issues.
The Commercial clause sought to establish the respective forms of interaction between states with an aim of preventing taxes on imports and exports, preference on a specific port occasioned by revenue or commerce regulation and the imposition of duties during entry or clearing of vessels coming from one state in the ports of another state (Prentice, 2008).Based on the information presented above, what do you see as the major differences between Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code and UCITA?The Uniform Computer Transactions Act (UCITA) elementally broadens the Uniform Commercial Code’s definition of commercial trade affairs through the inclusion of specific components. These aim at incorporating information and computer related trade activities into the commercial domain, which in essence streamlines trade functions in the current rapidly changing trade environment. Moreover, the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) includes significant freedom component when it comes to securing online commercial transactions and commercial activities, which was initially excluded in the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). In addition, the UCITA includes a component of size descriptions of commercial business entities since ordinarily the computer industry is made up of small industries compared to other industries. What is the legal distinction between selling a product and licensing it?Selling a product is the act of transferring full ownership of a product to a second party after meeting the laid down financial terms and conditions governing the existence of a binding contract.
Selling a product can occur even in the absence of industry specific regulations and product standard requirements.Licensing a product is the act of providing legal admission for the actual sale of a product in the contemporary business environment. The aim here is to design specific regulations requiring that all products should meet certain standards, including a specific manner in which trade operations should occur. Why do you think the drafters decided to propose it as a separate and distinct uniform act?The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) decided to pass through the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) in order to improve efficiency and promote standard practices in commercial transactions going on in the computer industry. The main drive of doing this was to spur the development of business oriented objectives while taking into account the factors resulting due to legal challenges existing in the computer industry (Hendricks, 2004).
Part of the reason was also because the computer and information industry has certain unique attributes associated with its transactions, which could significantly lead to lowering business ethics fundamentals.
