Vocabulary
Glossary
Fifteen essential questions on post-cessation archiving — legal procedures, actors, access mechanisms and technical continuity. Each entry answers a specific question, with a framework, a stake and the way Archivum operates it.
A
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Access grant
What is an access grant to archives?
Named and contractual designation of a person authorised to request access to the archives deposited with an archive trustee. It specifies the scope (viewing, restitution, voting), the conditions (signature, identity verification, collegial vote), and the duration. It is revocable, traceable and enforceable.
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Amicable liquidation
What is an amicable liquidation?
Non-contentious procedure that follows the voluntary dissolution of a company decided by its shareholders. An amicable liquidator is appointed to realise the assets, pay the debts and distribute any liquidation surplus. It closes with removal from the Trade and Companies Register, which extinguishes the legal entity.
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Archive trustee
What is an archive trustee?
Independent actor, designated by contract, who takes over the digital estate of a company that is winding down in order to preserve it, arbitrate at the contract's end, and where applicable assume its transfer. They are distinct from a hosting provider (technical capacity) and from a backup company (preservation of ongoing activity).
C
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Cessation of activity
What is a cessation of activity?
The definitive end of the exploitation of a company or self-employed activity. It may be voluntary (decided by the shareholders or the entrepreneur), amicable (out-of-court dissolution and liquidation) or court-ordered (opened by the commercial court). In every form, it triggers preservation and erasure obligations that should be anticipated.
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Collegial vote
How does a collegial vote on archive access work?
Decision mechanism set out in the contract when an access, restitution or end-of-period arbitration request concerns several grantees. The contract sets the majority rule (simple, qualified, unanimity), the quorum, any veto rights, and the voting period. Every operation is logged.
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Conservation period
What is a contractual conservation period?
Duration set in the contract during which an archive trustee preserves the deposited assets under the agreed rules (access, security, logging). It may be short (1 year) or long (10 years or more), adjustable to the nature of the assets, legal constraints and the signatories' decisions. At its end, an arbitration is held.
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Corporate digital estate
What is a company's digital estate?
All the digital assets a company holds in the course of its activity: files, projects, databases, source code, editorial content, credentials, cloud accounts, incoming and outgoing email. It carries legal, commercial and operational value that goes well beyond storage cost.
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Court-ordered liquidation
What is a court-ordered liquidation?
Collective proceedings opened by the commercial court against a company in suspension of payments whose recovery is manifestly impossible. A court-appointed liquidator is named by judgment to realise the assets, satisfy creditors and close the entity. It is governed by Book VI of the French Commercial Code.
D
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Digital rights transfer
What is a digital rights transfer?
Contractual transfer to a third party of all or part of the rights on digital assets: domain name, website content, source code, database, access, trade mark. The transfer is governed by the regimes applicable to each asset type (intellectual property, contract law, GDPR).
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Digital successor
What is a digital successor?
Person designated by contract, by will or by law to exercise rights over the digital estate of an individual or company no longer able to exercise them. The term applies both to individual successions (under the 2016 French Digital Republic Act) and to companies winding down.
E
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Email continuity
What is inbound-only email continuity?
Service consisting of taking over the critical email mailboxes of a company that is winding down, in inbound-only mode: incoming mail is preserved and accessible to successors, but no outgoing mail can be sent. Prevents the silent disappearance of addresses at the moment hosting payment lapses.
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End-of-period arbitration
What is an end-of-period archiving arbitration?
Decision taken at the end of a contractual conservation period between three pre-defined scenarios: extend the conservation, securely delete the content, or transfer rights to the residual assets to the archive trustee. It is decided by the decision-makers named in the contract under the agreed rules.
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European digital sovereignty
What is European digital sovereignty?
Ability to preserve and process data within a European legal framework, on infrastructure based in the EU, without exposure to non-European extraterritorial regimes (CLOUD Act, Investigatory Powers Act). For an organisation, it is reflected in the choice of a coherent hosting provider, jurisdiction and contractual framework.