W(h)ither Warranty: The B(l)oom of Products Liability Theory in Cases of Deficient Software Design

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ..................................................................................... 271 I. Warranty and Tort Recovery in the Commercial Law: The Interdependence of Contract and Tort ..................... 276 A. Current Sales Warranty Law Under Article 2 of the U .C .C ................................................................................... 276 B. Complementary Sources of Seller Liability for Deficient Goods: "Fraud Unravels Everything" ................................ 280 II. A Commercial World Without Implied Warranty ......................... 284 A. Courts Expanding Liability Beyond Warranty Using Strict Products Liability Theory ............................................ 284 1. The Disclaimer Example ................................................. 286 2. The Privity Example ....................................................... 288 3. Common Sense: How Courts Will Respond to the Weakness of Article 2B Warranty by Borrowing from Strict Products Liability .......................................... 290 B. The Unpeaceful Coexistence of Diametrically Opposed Errors: Excess in the Service of Politics ................................ 291 1. Politics in the Drafting of U.C.C. Articles 2, 3, 4, and 9 .......................................................................... 291 2. The Modem Revisions .................................................... 292 C. The Demands of Commerce and Technology: Of the Fortuity of Tangibility .......................................................... 293 D. Llex Llewellyn in Cyberspace ............................................... 296