Y2K: Legal Implications and Future Repercussions

The legal system will ultimately determine where much of the huge losses that will be occasioned by the Millennium Bug will land. Seemingly minor glitches, such as a computerized inventory control system's wrongfully rejecting an order of chemicals as expired since 1900 (when the real expiratio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Information systems frontiers 1999-08, Vol.1 (2), p.141
Main Author: Prentice, Robert A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attorneys
Breach of contract
Chemicals
Class action lawsuits
Customers
Debugging
Information systems
Inventory control
Law
Legal fees
Liability
Software industry
Studies
Year 2000
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Summary:The legal system will ultimately determine where much of the huge losses that will be occasioned by the Millennium Bug will land. Seemingly minor glitches, such as a computerized inventory control system's wrongfully rejecting an order of chemicals as expired since 1900 (when the real expiration date is in the year 2000) can create a myriad of lawsuits among manufacturers, suppliers, customers, software vendors and consultants, and insurance companies. No major producers or consumers of software will escape unscathed. Although software producers have grounds for optimism regarding the early rounds of litigation, it is likely that persistent plaintiffs' attorneys and concerned legislators ultimately will threaten a "litigation crisis" of unprecedented proportions. The software industry can fruitfully draw strategic lessons from the accounting profession's similar litigation crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s in terms of litigation strategies, lobbying efforts, and funding of useful academic research. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:1387-3326
1572-9419
DOI:10.1023/A:1009647304522