For example, a printout can omit data about the sender, recipients and transmission. The court fairly referred to the hard copy as a dismembered document. The government's response was to tell agencies that e-mail printouts must include all transmission information. Viewed narrowly, the government's solution acknowledges the court's concern. But reliance on paper rather than electronics is a fundamental mistake.
Electronic records beg to be maintained in digital form.
Today, trying to preserve e-mail electronically may not be easy, practical or even possible. The resources that went into the litigation should have been used to develop tools for preserving e-mail in its native format. This time, the lawsuit was over the validity of a General Records Schedule promulgated by NARA covering electronic records. A GRS instructs agencies how to dispose of a class of records. The GRS for electronic records said that an agency could dispose of an electronic record if it kept a paper copy.