In the UK at least it crops up a lot in legal circles.
Quite often solicitors have stuff on 3.5" or even 5.25" floppies that need read, converted from WordPerfect into something modern, and delivered as maybe a PDF or Word Doc.
Fortunately, solicitors tend not to be short of money (that they bill their client for) so they can often find "a guy who knows a guy" who can get that precious floppy onto a USB stick. Occasionally I am the guy who the guy knows, and it buys me the odd case of reasonably-priced wine.
Out of curiosity, what kind of documents are those typically? Surely UK businesses don't need to keep financial records for 40+ years (or however long it's been since floppies were common)?
Details of acquisition of assets which may incur tax or legal treatment on disposal?
Ongoing contracts (e.g. life insurance policies may last 40+ years). I did work for an insurance company once, and they had active policies started prior to 1940. There were electronic documents which dated back 30+ years.
While completed transactions may only need records for a few years, ongoing assets and contracts need documentation held for much longer.
Jarndyce v. Jarndyce in fiction, and many others in reality, such as the UK PPI scandal, the Maxwell pensioners, and (US) all the malpractice cases like Vioxx and asbestos...
Comments
In the UK at least it crops up a lot in legal circles.
Quite often solicitors have stuff on 3.5" or even 5.25" floppies that need read, converted from WordPerfect into something modern, and delivered as maybe a PDF or Word Doc.
Fortunately, solicitors tend not to be short of money (that they bill their client for) so they can often find "a guy who knows a guy" who can get that precious floppy onto a USB stick. Occasionally I am the guy who the guy knows, and it buys me the odd case of reasonably-priced wine.
Out of curiosity, what kind of documents are those typically? Surely UK businesses don't need to keep financial records for 40+ years (or however long it's been since floppies were common)?
I don't know, I don't speak solicitor and I don't care to read them.
Probably stuff to do with property ownership.
Last PC I saw in daily use with floppies in daily use was about five years ago.
Details of acquisition of assets which may incur tax or legal treatment on disposal?
Ongoing contracts (e.g. life insurance policies may last 40+ years). I did work for an insurance company once, and they had active policies started prior to 1940. There were electronic documents which dated back 30+ years.
While completed transactions may only need records for a few years, ongoing assets and contracts need documentation held for much longer.
Legal matters often have decades long histories. Especially things like deceased estates.
Jarndyce v. Jarndyce in fiction, and many others in reality, such as the UK PPI scandal, the Maxwell pensioners, and (US) all the malpractice cases like Vioxx and asbestos...