Legal Question in Technology Law in Washington

Year 2000 problem, vendor forcing upgrade

This is a new area of the law, and not a lot of cases have been decided as yet. The web has lots of information. There are about a half dozen law suits that have ben filed to date, almost all are like the situation you describe. One of the recent suits is against Intuit for their virus protection software, which the company says should be upgraded to avoid Y2K problems (as I understand the lawsuit). The web sites that get a lot of traffic are IBM's and Microsoft's. They both have Y2K pages dedicated to explaining the problem and their approach to resolving it.

There are a number of theories under which a lawsuit could be brought. Talking to a lawyer that specializes in computer law (look in the yellow pages in your area) would be a good investment. An attorney may be able to convince the company to provide the upgrade at no cost.

Hardware vendor's Y2K Responsibility

My insurer & ethics board insists I say: "I'm not your lawyer and this is not legal advice; I don't know the facts of your situation or which legal jurisdiction you live in."

Whew! Now here's some general thoughts:

The exact case you ask for doesn't yet exist, but don't worry. It seems to me the basic problem is that the vendor wants money to make the system work beyond 12/31/1999, and you don't want to pay.

If so, then the most important thing is whether the system was supposed to work for 5 years without $$$thousands in fixes.

Forget Y2K for a sec. Let's say the plastic in the system dissolves after five years of normal use. Wouldn't the vendor have an obligation to replace it, with perhaps some discount for usage?

I suspect that the normal lifespan of your phone system might exceed 5 years. You should have an attorney review any agreement you made with the vendor, including all material representations made outside the purchase & sales contract. If the vendor didn't deliver the system you agreed to purchase, you've probably got a breach for which there's some remedy.

You might consider working with other system purchasers to compel the vendor to act, via negotiation, joint suit or class action. There's several similar suits in progress, e.g. Altarz v. SBT.

In negotiating with the vendor, you can note that many smart vendors are absorbing the cost of Y2K fixes. Dumb vendors, trying to use this as an opportunity to make more money off captive customers, are buying themselves lawsuits & risking loss of market share.

I'd be happy to talk about this in more detail, especially if you're in my jurisdiction.