My state has passed the RULONA. The relevant passage, with the section numbering adopted in my state, says
(k) A notary public, guardian, conservator, or agent of a notary public or a personal representative of a deceased notary public shall retain the audiovisual recording created under subdivision (b)(4) of this section or cause the recording to be retained by a repository designated by or on behalf of the person required to retain the recording. Unless a different period is required by rules adopted under section 5323 of this chapter, the recording must be retained for a period of at least 10 years after the recording is made.
So, it says the storage can be passed of to someone the notary designates. It doesn't say who gets in trouble if the designee fails to perform their responsibility. The law doesn't say under what circumstances the notary must make the recording available to someone who requests it. The law doesn't say if the notary or designated storage entity has to copy the recording when the expected life of the storage medium approaches. The law doesn't say that the notary or storage entity has to help the person who wants to see the recording view it. But the Office of Professional Regulation will have to make rules before any of this goes into effect, so maybe the rules will specify that stuff.
I suppose if I participated in RON, and wanted to be a hard-a**, I could say to someone who asks to see a record from 8 years ago, "sure, come to my home Friday at 1 PM and you can look at it. Be sure to bring everything you need to view an MP3 file on an Acme model 12345 thumb drive with a USB interface". If they can't find hardware that will read the thumb drive, that's their problem. If, by the time they want to view the file, the MP3 format is no longer supported by most operating systems, that's their problem.
But if there was a question about whether the person who signed was really the person who should have signed, and I was sure it was the right person, I'd want to be able to play the video to prove it. If *I* couldn't play the video, I would be at a disadvantage. |
