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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

#22
post #11
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…

Thanks for this. Really quells the urge I get every so often to just code my own PDF editor, because they all suck and certainly it couldn't be THAT hard. Such hubris!

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#23
post #7

How it’s done from technical point?

I remember reading the recommendation for journalists to redact documents is to black them out in the digital version, print it out, and re-scan it. Anything else has too many potential ways by which it might be possible to smuggle data.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#25
post #22
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Thanks for this. Really quells the urge I get every so often to just code my own PDF editor, because they all suck and certainly it couldn't be THAT hard. Such hubris!

Don't stop yourself before getting started. I believe in you - maybe you could write the one editor that would actually work!

Not kidding - it's a ~~~billion dollar market haha

Make an MVP/Show HN :-)

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#27
post #19
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i assume the downvoters don't see the importance of the question.

The downvoters assume that it is a bad faith question. The downvoters are 99% right with that. If the 1% hit then OP is just exceedingly naive and did not followed the scandal in which case they should maybe first do some reading. The names of involved powerful people were NOT supposed to be censored. All those names except Bill Clinton name were redacted. To protect Trump and everybody else involved in the scandal e…

They also obscured the male perpetrators faces and bodies in many images, illegaly.

Re: Some Epstein file redactions are being undone

#29
post #28

Can you post the document numbers, I can't find where these texts are in the original pdfs.

ah, found it - this is from the 'Court Records' part.

https://www.justice.gov/multimedia/Court Records/Matter of the Estate of Jeffrey E. Epstein, Deceased, No. ST-21-RV-00005 (V.I. Super. Ct. 2021)/2022.03.17-1 Exhibit 1.pdf

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