From Ed Foster’s Gripelog: “This week the Americans For Fair Electronic Commerce Transactions (AFFECT) coalition announced its “Stop Before You Click” campaign promoting its 12 Principles for Fair Commerce in Software and Other Digital Products. But what does AFFECT mean by all that? After we stop before we click, what do we do next?

My long-time readers know AFFECT as the organization that succeeded in stopping the spread of UCITA, the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act. UCITA, an incredibly customer-unfriendly model state law pushed by Microsoft and friends, was hurriedly enacted in Virginia and Maryland before interest groups opposed to it could effectively get organized. Once those interest groups - including ones representing consumers, civil rights advocates, computer engineers, librarians, software programmers, and corporate IT purchasers — got their act together, UCITA was stopped dead in its tracks. Now AFFECT has decided it’s time to go beyond trying to stop bad laws and to actively promote customer-friendly business practices in the technology sector.”

Full article: Why You Should Stop Before You Click