20 2.3.18 Provisions for dealing with record retention are also important since experience has shown that difficulties of reading electronic material when technology changes rapidly and the medium is not necessarily well suited to archival conditions. For example, it may be necessary to ensure that changes in format do not compromise accuracy. It may also be necessary to clarify that legal requirements for document retention are satisfied by electronic copies, again possibly with certain exceptions. 2.3.19 Historically, courts have generally preferred oral testimony of witnesses to the presentation of information in documents. To be admissible, a document must be relevant (as must oral testimony) and it must be at least somewhat reliable for showing the facts—i.e., must not be counterfeit or altered. Authentication of a document is fundamental to its admissibility and this may include developing a foundation for its authenticity—including testimony on how and where it was made, stored, copied etc.) If the original document cannot be authenticated, then even reliable evidence with respect to its conversion to another format will not render it credible or admissible. Consequently, various “rules of evidence” and commercial rules have developed to deal with such matters as business records made in the course of business or the time and place when a contract is made. Electronic documents and ecommerce raise new issues. For example, is a computer printout an “original”? What is the impact of migration to a new format when information is being archived or kept for a similarly long time? What is the status of computer-generated information? 2.3.20 The evidentiary value of documents is linked, of course, to the provisions in an Electronic Commerce Act. Meeting the provisions of such legislation, however, does not guarantee that a document will be admissible but it allows certain presumptions, such as the time and place of the making of a contract, to be established. It also provides a framework that the court can look to in determining the reliability of the authenticity of an electronic signature, for example, and the weight to be given to attribution. The creation of equivalency rules and statements that electronic documents may be legally recognised provides the courts and other tribunals (including arbitrators and other practitioners of dispute resolution) with guidance and authority to accept electronic documents in evidence. 2.3.21 The Uniform Law Conference of Canada developed a Uniform Electronic Evidence Act,9 which is intended to provide examples of amendments to existing rules of evidence to facilitate the admissibility 9 www.law.ualberta.ca/alri.ulc/current/eeeact.htm