For purposes of the federal best evidence (or original document) rule, an "original" of a writing is the writing itself or any counterpart intended to have the same effect by a person executing or issuing it; the "original" of a recording is is the recording itself or any counterpart intended to have the same effect by a person executing or issuing it; the "original" of a photograph includes the negative or any print taken from the negative; and the "original" of data stored in a computer or similar device includes any printout or other output readable by sight shown to reflect the data accurately.

McDonough v. City of Quincy, 452 F.3d 8, 21 (1st Cir. 2006) (holding, in plaintiff police officer's unlawful retaliation action against defendant city, that the trial court properly admitted the out-of-court statements....A statement by an agent or an employee who is not authorized to speak on behalf of the agent's principal or the employee's employer may nonetheless be treated as the statement of the principal or the employer and thus as a vicarious admission that is exempt from the prohibition against hearsay; but such a statement can be imputed to the principal or the employer only if the statement, if by an agent, is about a matter within the scope of the agent's agency or, if by an employee, the statement is about a matter within the scope of the employee's employment.

Fed. R. Evid. 402 ("All relevant evidence is admissible, except as otherwise provided by the Constitution of the United States, by Act of Congress, by these rules, or by other rules prescribed by the Supreme Court pursuant to statutory authority.").Relevant evidence is admissible unless another rule of evidence, law, or valid principle mandates or permits exclusion.

Fed. R. Evid. 103(d) ("Nothing in this rule precludes taking notice of plain errors affecting substantial rights although they were not brought to the attention of the court.").An objection is unnecessary to preserve a claim of error and a trial court should exclude, on its own initiative, evidence offered against a criminal defendant or other disadvantaged party when admission of the evidence would be "plain error."