c/Illegalism · by sad_detective_man@leminal.space · 274d

Wow, you literally can just unredact it. Is this illegal?

https://joshwho.net/EpsteinList/gov.uscourts.nysd.447706.1320.0-combined.pdf

77 pages that were unredacted

https://files.catbox.moe/zg651j.pdf

71 points · 16 comments · view on lemmy.world

16 Comments

kittenzrulz123@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 29 pts · 274d (1 reply)

There are four separate layers to this:

Distributing leaked government documents is illegal, these redacted documents being unredacted legally is a leak
All personally identifiable information and actually classified information is still redacted, any information to my best knowledge (not a lawyer btw) is within the boundaries of H.R. 4405 (aka Epstein files transparency act).
It is still possible that the information is still legally classified however since its now effectively public it might be used by a future legal case against the admin for violating H.R. 4405, in such a case these and other yet to be unredacted files could be legally unredacted.
Regardless of the actual legal status of these documents the person who originally uploaded these "leaked" files is likely going to face trial before a sham court. Remember, there is no such thing as rule of law anymore only rule by law and even lawyers are saying that now. As an individual the chances of getting punished for reading or distributing these files is slim unless you are a significant public facing person.

(I am not a lawyer this is not legal advice)

sad_detective_man@leminal.space · 8 pts · 274d

Eh, it helps me a layman get a rough idea of something I am way too uneducated to have a sound opinion on. So I appreciate you breaking it down.

MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de · 16 pts · 274d

Idk, idc, but it's on my phone now, and if it were a torrent, I would be seeding that SoB for the rest of my life.

AntiBullyRanger@ani.social · 8 pts · 274d (6 replies)

No.

But fascists don't follow law anyways.

IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 270d (5 replies)

only disagree on the technicality that they are the law. the law well bend to match whatever they do because they decide what the law is.

AntiBullyRanger@ani.social · 2 pts · 270d (4 replies)

The last statement is for liberals who glorify a mythic cudgel. I already encapsulated their hypocrisy.

IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 270d (3 replies)

nothing is as cringe as liberal protesting, 10 people holding signs and screening "this is what democracy looks like" in the street corner they got a permit for, on a Sunday morning where no one hears them...

I say that knowing full well I go to a weekly Gaza protest Sunday noon in a corner we have permission to be in... at least we don't sing that "this is what democracy looks like".

AntiBullyRanger@ani.social · 3 pts · 270d (2 replies)

hard finding a comrade on this network that comprehends protests are nothing without direct political acts😭🤝🫂. The mental hoops they do to circumvent their hypocrisy is jaw dropping.

I go back to the deathcamps, and they ignore their fascist praxis.

IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 270d (1 reply)

a protests should be a show of force. a demonstration that there are more people than jail cells. if those people want change no police can stop them.

otherwise, it's just a parade. there were two no kings protests, they're should have been one, the second one should have involved some politicians hanging at the end of the day. not another exact recreation of the first protest

AntiBullyRanger@ani.social · 3 pts · 270d

🤝

BCsven@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 274d (5 replies)

Also the blacked out stuff you can just select in pdf viewer and copy paste into another text document to read it. That redaction process is useless.

douglasg14b@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 274d (4 replies)

Some of it, not all of it.

I found tonsssss of files this didn't work on.

It's pretty inconsistent across the board

BCsven@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 273d (2 replies)

Depends on if they just used a pdf tool that draws a black shape over the text or one that does a replacement. But I meant the recent leaked file, the blackouts are just shapes over text.

cassandrafatigue@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 273d (1 reply)

I hate that I, an anarchist, was a better shady government operative than these people on my first day of high school.

jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 272d

[ removed ]

cassandrafatigue@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 272d

Could be different parties did different redactions. Is there a pattern to what shows?

PMP@aussie.zone · 3 pts · 271d

Haven't looked at one of the Epstein files, I'll leave the legality and content sleuthing up to others. What I am interested in is how these supposedly redacted PDFs were made.

I have dug out my copy of ol' Acrobat pro 9 (fuck Adobe anything after CS6) and have run a few tests. The redact tool is powerful, incredibly easy to use and idiot proof. If there are redacted PDFs that can be hacked (copy & paste) they weren't made using the redact tool in Adobe Pro.

There is a theory going around that DOGE cuts removed Adobe Acrobat licences and the thought of hundreds of untrained FBI or DOJ agents frantically using a black highlighter in MS Word is absolutely hilarious to me. Move fast; break things.