Highlighting a growing alarm over the lack of year 2000 readiness in business, industry, government, and education, the Senate recently passed the Year 2000 Information Disclosure Act (S.2392). There is a similar bill in the House. The bill provides companies some protection from lawsuits based on their statements regarding Y2K readiness. With several exceptions, the bill states that a maker of a "year 2000 statement shall not be liable under federal or state law with respect to that year 2000 statement." While the intent is to encourage disclosure it also makes reliance solely on such disclosures dangerous for a customer.
Attorneys who have reviewed the bill are of the opinion that vendors of third-party products will be protected under the terms of the bill, but the manufacturer of the hardware or software will remain liable if it knew or should have known, that its product was not compliant. Therefore, libraries would be well advised to verify Y2K statements made by third-party vendors for products other than those it actually manufactures.