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Computing

From...

House passes year-2000 bill

Congress passes legislation offering safeguards to companies that share technical information about Y2K issues.

October 5, 1998
Web posted at: 1:40 PM EDT

by Nancy Weil

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(IDG) -- The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill offering liability safeguards to companies that share information about Year 2000 products and procedures.

The Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act was passed by the U.S. Senate on Monday and won House approval on Thursday. It now goes to U.S. President Bill Clinton, who is expected to sign the bill into law. He has publicly endorsed the effort, which grew in part out of legislation he proposed.

The bill is supposed to encourage companies to share information about Year 2000 preparations by freeing businesses from liability over statements they make about products or plans to fix the millennium problem.

The bill does not, however, allow for protection when Year 2000 problems cause computer failures. For instance, if a company markets a product that claims to "fix" the Year 2000 bug and that product doesn't work, the bill provides no liability protection

Just how widespread Y2K problems will be is the subject of intense speculation, but various government and industry reports predict everything from mild regional turmoil to massive global disruptions. Governments and businesses have been scrambling to either fix existing code or implement new computer systems that are Y2K-compliant.

About 40 industry groups support the bill, although the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and other critics in the legal community oppose it, saying that it does not provide enough protection for consumers.

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