(a) Books and records relating to the insurance transactions of any person licensed to sell insurance, including all files relating to and reflecting customer complaints, shall be kept separate and apart from all records relating to other business transactions of such person, and shall be made available to the commissioner for inspection upon reasonable notice.

(b) Unless applicable provisions of chapter thirty-three of this code or rules promulgated thereunder expressly require that an original of any insurance record be maintained, any insurance records may be stored in any photographic, photostatic, microphotographic or similar miniature photographic process or by nonerasable optical image disks such as compact disks or by other similar retention technology and such copies, in positive or negative form, may be substituted for the originals thereof. Thereafter, such copy or reproduction in the form of a positive print thereof, shall be deemed for all purposes to be an original counterpart of and shall have the same force and effect as the original thereof and shall be admissible in evidence in all courts and administrative agencies in this state, to the same extent, and for the same purposes as the original thereof, and the original may be destroyed or otherwise disposed of; but every such person shall retain either the originals or such copies or reproductions for as long as required under applicable records retention requirements. (c) All circumstances surrounding the making or issuance of such documents, books, records, correspondence and other instruments, papers or writings, or the photographic, photostatic or microphotographic copies or optical disks or other permissible reproductions thereof, when the same are offered in evidence, may be shown to affect the weight but not the admissibility thereof. (d) Any device used to copy or reproduce such documents and records shall be one which correctly and accurately reproduces the original thereof in all details and any disk or film used therein shall be of durable material.