On 1/29/2014 12:41 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
On Jan 29, 2014 9:36 AM, "Paul Koning"
<paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote:
On Jan 28, 2014, at 10:55 PM, tom <thomas.w.cranston at gmail.com> wrote:
>> ...
> Legal - In some parts of the world documents faxed are considered
legal, as if
the had been hand delivered.
The USA is such a place.
I don't
recall the exact wording, but basically any setup that scans a
physical document, transfers a representation over a telecommunication
system, and recreates it as s physical document again meets the US legal
definition of facsimile. There doesn't have to be a "fax machine" as you
would normally consider it, and Internet email should qualify for the
telecommunication, but if the document doesn't start and end in physical
form, it isn't a fax.
In other words, if I sign a paper contract, scan it, email it to someone,
and they print it, it has been faxed. But if I start with a PDF file, sign
it in a graphics program, and email that, it has not been faxed because it
did not originate as a physical document. If the PDF was originally a scan
of a paper document, but I fill it in digitally, then email it, that's not
a fax because the electronic document is not an accurate, unaltered
representation of a physical document.
[I'm not a lawyer, so take this with a suitably large grain of salt.]
You're position is correct, save one item. The document need not end up
in physical form to be a legal fax. It must simply be convertable to a
physical document (so, animated images from a fax machine would not be
legal, if such a thing could be created). Companies also have the option
of scanning paper documents into electronic versions and considering
those the "legal" version of that document. Most financial services
organizations do that now, using one of many contract management or
document management/workflow systems to automatically scan all incoming
mail to digital format, immediately shredding the original paper copies.
The same is true of "electronic documents". If the resulting document
cannot be converted to an identical hard copy version, it cannot be
considered a legal electronic document. This makes sense, as otherwise,
contracts could contain disappearing sections, etc. Thus, many entities
that allow electronic documents (typically because they allow electronic
signatures) specify PDF/A as the only usable format for electronic
storage. PDF/A is a subset of PDF that does not allow the animated
stuff (and some other things, but you can go grab the standard if you
want the boring details).
IANAL, but I have worked with them extensively on sSignatures and the
legal requirements for mailed and faxed contract retention, from a
financial services perspective, which is heavily regulated.
Jim
--
Jim Brain
brain at
jbrain.com
www.jbrain.com