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Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

theguardian.com

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Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#111

Post by Tostino »

tdeck wrote: post #105
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"There are major differences between the Trump 1.0 and 2.0 administrations. In the Trump 1.0 administration, many of the most important officials were very competent men. One example would be then-Attorney General William Barr. Barr is contemptible, yes, but smart AF. When Barr’s DOJ released a redacted version of the Mueller Report, they printed the whole thing, made their redactions with actual ink, and then re-sca…

The bigger difference from my perspective is that they have competent people doing the strategy this time. The last Trump administration failed to use the obvious levers available to accomplish fascism, while this one has been wildly successful on that end. In a few years they will have realigned the whole power dynamic in the country, and unfortunately more and more competent people will choose to work for them in o…

His last administration was filled with traditional Republicans.

I may have disagreed with them on virtually every policy point, but they seemed to disagree with the most harmful Trump policies as well.

We would have never agreed on the right policy, but we definitely agreed that his policy was not the right one.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#112

Post by JumpCrisscross »

dragonwriter wrote: post #70
neutronicus wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's different from a dictatorship, though, especially if the CIA is not answerable to a supposed dictator.

> That's different from a dictatorship, Its exactly equivalent to a dictatorship by the head of the CIA, unless the CIA is effectively answerable to some other authority despite not being answerable to the law, and then it is equivalent to a dictatorship by that higher authority.

> Its exactly equivalent to a dictatorship by the head of the CIA

No it's not. I can commit all manner of illegal acts in my home unnoticed, that doesn't make me a dictator.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#113

Post by JumpCrisscross »

mmh0000 wrote: post #11
tomekf wrote: post #7

How it’s done from technical point?

Layers. PDF is an absurdly complex file format. It's part of the reason there is no single "good" PDF reader, just a lot of mediocre PDF readers that are all terrible in their own way. Which is a topic for another day. There are several ways to remove data in a PDF: - Remove the data. This is much harder than it sounds. Many PDF tools won't let you change the content of a PDF, not because it isn't possible, but becau…

> Then you have the computer illiterate, who think changing the foreground and background color to black is good enough anyway

To be fair, this works if you print out those copies and then re-scan them.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#114

Post by DANmode »

ourmandave wrote: post #95
andsoitis wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you truly believe the US is currently a dictatorship?

The pendulum swings. It always does. And all the powers SCOTUS gave the executive branch will eventually be in the hands of the Loyal Opposition. If it swings as far back you might even see universal health care, sane gun laws, fair wages, campaign finance reform, reproductive freedom, science based policy making, reigning in billionaires, etc.

Tell us more about the sane (“common sense”?) gun laws!

I love these.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#115

Post by dullcrisp »

weird-eye-issue wrote: post #107
digitaltrees wrote: post #106

Its not a hack to copy and paste text that is part of the document data. The incompetence of the people responsible to comply with the law doesnt mean its reasonable to label something a hack. Please change the title.

If I open your laptop and guess your password then that counts as hacking you in both legal and security terms You don't need to do some sophisticated thing for it to be considered hacking

I guess but if you write something down real small and I squint at it is that still hacking?

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#116

Post by TOMDM »

weird-eye-issue wrote: post #107
digitaltrees wrote: post #106

Its not a hack to copy and paste text that is part of the document data. The incompetence of the people responsible to comply with the law doesnt mean its reasonable to label something a hack. Please change the title.

If I open your laptop and guess your password then that counts as hacking you in both legal and security terms You don't need to do some sophisticated thing for it to be considered hacking

If someone sends me a document with text in it that they meant to remove but didn't and then I read that text, I haven't hacked anything they're just incompetent.

Hacking is unauthorised use of a system. Reading a document that was not adequately redacted can hardly be considered hacking.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#117

Post by DANmode »

ourmandave wrote: post #95
andsoitis wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you truly believe the US is currently a dictatorship?

The pendulum swings. It always does. And all the powers SCOTUS gave the executive branch will eventually be in the hands of the Loyal Opposition. If it swings as far back you might even see universal health care, sane gun laws, fair wages, campaign finance reform, reproductive freedom, science based policy making, reigning in billionaires, etc.

> science based policy making

One of my favorite trivia questions is: how long has it been since Congress has had staff scientists?

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#118

Post by Gigachad »

tomekf wrote: post #7

How it’s done from technical point?

PDF is less like an image, and more like a web page where elements can be stacked on top of each other. You can visually obscure things by sticking a black rectangle over the top, but anyone who inspects inside the pdf can remove it or see the text in the source.

There would also be a mix of text documents, and image scans. The way to censor each is different.

Perfectly censoring documents, particularly digital ones is actually surprisingly difficult.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#119

Post by koolala »

weird-eye-issue wrote: post #107
digitaltrees wrote: post #106

Its not a hack to copy and paste text that is part of the document data. The incompetence of the people responsible to comply with the law doesnt mean its reasonable to label something a hack. Please change the title.

If I open your laptop and guess your password then that counts as hacking you in both legal and security terms You don't need to do some sophisticated thing for it to be considered hacking

If you were blind would a screen reader read the documents? Thats not a hack.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#120

Post by rootusrootus »

andsoitis wrote: post #57
cynicalsecurity wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let people believe it's deliberate sabotage. Unfortunately, in real life, minions of a dictator serve the dictator; they don't risk their live or safety for a noble cause. Any screw-ups are a result of gross incompetence that is typical for every dictatorship.

Do you truly believe the US is currently a dictatorship?

The country as a whole, no. But within the regime? Yeah.
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