The October 2015 deadline to switch POS terminals in the US will not be a law. It will be a liability shift. In other words if there is fraud from a transaction that took place using the old fashioned magstrip, then the liability for that fraud will be with the merchant who did not convert to the pin and chip POS system.
The deadline for ATMs in the US to switch card readers to read the EMV chip is October 2016 and gas stations have the deadline of October 2017 to switch over.