VJ Home: Archive: Abstract Article (2000) 4 VJ 1, 3-29 Chaos Versus Uniformity: The Divergent Views of Software in the International Community Trevor Cox* Software is one of the foundations for the information industry. Existing contract laws generally categorise the world into either a contract for goods, or for services. While these two categories served the legal community over the years, software challenges the established legal categories, since software cannot easily be categorised as goods or services. Software can be delivered via the Internet (electronic software), mass-produced and delivered on a disk, or custom designed for a particular party. Regrettably, the international treatment of software is in a state of chaos. The goal of uniformity is but a distant dream for the international community at a time when the Internet has created an unquestionable need for harmony in international contract law. The international legal community has a duty to remedy this state of chaos to promote uniformity and growth in international trade. The question is how should the international community remedy the situation. With the contrasting views in the EU and the US, there is a substantial challenge in finding a general consensus behind a particular approach. * The author is a licensing and technology attorney in the Intellectual Property and Technology Group at Gray Gray Ware & Freidenrich LLP in San Francisco, California.