Legal aspects of the computerization of management systems in the USSR and Eastern Europe

The more important legal questions which have been extensively discussed by Soviet commentators are those involved in the development of the legal framework for the creation of an au tomated system of management. An assessment of the state of the automation of management systems in the USSR was given in an article in Pravda on May 12, 1980, by D. G. Zhimerin, a prime mover in the Soviet computerization process. The planned economies of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe have long experience in the development of mass production of industrial products. In the USSR, contracts for computer sales are governed by the Special Conditions for Supply of Products of Instrument-Building. A number of special rules apply to the supply of computers and control systems. The most important use of microprocessors is as controllers for a wide variety of industrial and consumer goods, for instance computer terminals and washing machines.