Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%

Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.

Comply or Die: Corporate Record Keeping in a Digital World

By Gregory Hanna
October 01, 2003

Although compliance is generally thought of in a regulatory sense, every corporation that could be involved in litigation needs to consider the implications of how and what information is stored. In a sense, heavily regulated industries such as health care, securities, banking, and commodities are in a better position since the specifics of record keeping are set out in great detail. All industries that interact with the government can assume that their time will come. Other corporations may not discover whether they are adequately preserving information until they are faced with a discovery request. In either event, failure to comply can have dire financial consequences. See The Cost of Non-Compliance.)

There are three recent laws that have specific requirements for the electronic retention, protection and dissemination of information: the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act enacted in 1999 (GLBA); the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA); and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOA). GLBA and HIPAA hold affected enterprises accountable to protect private information while SOA requires companies that issue public securities to establish and maintain internal controls over their financial reporting systems and assess these controls' effectiveness in reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Management is directly responsible under these acts for creating, implementing and overseeing each of these laws. Failing to comply, or trusting the IT department to take care of this, can result in civil and/or criminal penalties. For example, fines for ignoring a specific requirement under HIPAA can reach $25,000 per violation; under SOA a corporate officer who knowingly signs a false financial report can be fined up to $1 million and face as many as 10 years in prison; and GLBA authorizes individual actions against banks and financial institutions up to $1000, with damages available up to $500,000 for a class action.

This premium content is locked for Entertainment Law & Finance subscribers only

  • Stay current on the latest information, rulings, regulations, and trends
  • Includes practical, must-have information on copyrights, royalties, AI, and more
  • Tap into expert guidance from top entertainment lawyers and experts

For enterprise-wide or corporate acess, please contact Customer Service at [email protected] or 877-256-2473

Read These Next
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws Image

This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.

Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin Image

With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.

The Article 8 Opt In Image

The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.

Removing Restrictive Covenants In New York Image

In Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?

Fresh Filings Image

Notable recent court filings in entertainment law.