Y2CARE
Imagine the following scenario: General Motors, Ford and Chrysler realize that in the millions of cars they have sold to American consumers, they have used an inferior rubber sealant that may break down in just a few years of normal use, threatening the safety and livelihood of all those car buyers. But instead of recalling the cars to replace the defective parts, or giving consumers the tools to fix them on their own, the car manufacturers go to Congress to limit their liability for their mistake.
In addition to capping how much a car buyer can claim in damages, they propose putting all kinds of additional burdens on a buyer's ability to make a claim--like requiring that they lessen damages by taking appropriate action on their own and requiring that they give the car makers notice that they are experiencing problems with their cars before they can file suit.
That, in essence, is what the computer industry, aided by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has sought to do with the Y2K problem. The millennium bug, caused by the use of outdated computer code that will read the date field 2000 ("00") as 1900, has already hurt many small businesses. For example, the owners of a gourmet food store in Michigan were forced to stop taking credit cards, resulting in a 40 percent decline in their business, when a new computerized cash register system they had bought repeatedly crashed when credit cards with a "00" expiration date were used. The National Federation of Independent Business estimates that 4.75 million small businesses are subject to the Y2K bug, and 750,000 may either shut down or be severely hurt by it.
But instead of taking steps to aid small business in dealing with Y2K, the main bill moving through Congress, S-96, limits their rights to collect damages and grants relief to software manufacturers and vendors--including those who may have done nothing to address the problem. "Existing liability laws offer plenty of protections for businesses that might be sued," The New York Times editorialized in opposition. "The larger worry is that the prospect of immunity could dissuade equipment and software makers from making the effort to correct the millennium-bug problem."
The leading sponsors of S-96, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chris Dodd (D-CT) and John McCain (R-AZ) are, respectively the #3, #11 and #12 top Senate recipients of computer industry contributions from 1993-98. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, "computer companies pumped at least $8.8 million in soft money, PAC and individual contributions to federal candidates and parties during the 1997-98 election cycle--more than double what they gave in the last midterm elections." Fifty-seven percent of that total went to Republicans.
By comparison, donations from the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the main opponent of Y2K liability limits, gave more than $2.4 million in PAC contributions in 1997-98, eighty-five percent to Democrats.
