8 ms·

It baffles me that in order to request a file from some database you need to write a letter to a person who then responds back after a month. Did you end up inc

by lxe 7y ago

It baffles me that in order to request a file from some database you need to write a letter to a person who then responds back after a month. Did you end up incurring fees of $48/h for searching and per-page fees as well? I thought that a major benefit of the internet is that we don’t have to do this anymore.

coolspot 7y ago
Someone with clearance still have to review what can and what can not be released. Probably goes through couple approvals and checks too.
danso 7y ago
The Internet reduces the cost of access distribution, but not the work of locating information and meeting bureaucratic regulations for its publication. Even for institutions in which data preservation and access is fundamental to the bottom line, this is a hard problem. Think of the many game companies who have had to remake classics without access to the original source code and/or assets, such Icewind Dale II [0] and FF7 [1]. The good news is that repeated public records requests can eventually push an agency to come up with a streamlined process that prioritizes making records available by default. Or at least, a bulk dump, in the case of the FBI and celebrity death files [2] [0] https://kotaku.com/nobody-can-find-the-source-code-for-icewind-dale-ii-1796724450 https://kotaku.com/nobody-can-find-the-source-code-for-icewi... [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ysjeu/iama_guy_who_has_been_reverse_engineering_final/c5yftp2/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ysjeu/iama_guy_who_ha... [2] https://vault.fbi.gov/popular-culture https://vault.fbi.gov/popular-culture
kube-system 7y ago
If you can write a program that can automate this, then you're a better programmer than most of us. https://www.justice.gov/oip/blog/foia-update-freedom-information-act-5-usc-sect-552-amended-public-law-no-104-231-110-stat https://www.justice.gov/oip/blog/foia-update-freedom-informa...
- nyolfen 7y ago
  the request end is automated at least: https://www.muckrock.com/foi/create/ https://www.muckrock.com/foi/create/

by lxe 7y ago

coolspot 7y ago

Someone with clearance still have to review what can and what can not be released. Probably goes through couple approvals and checks too.

danso 7y ago

The Internet reduces the cost of access distribution, but not the work of locating information and meeting bureaucratic regulations for its publication. Even for institutions in which data preservation and access is fundamental to the bottom line, this is a hard problem. Think of the many game companies who have had to remake classics without access to the original source code and/or assets, such Icewind Dale II [0] and FF7 [1]. The good news is that repeated public records requests can eventually push an agency to come up with a streamlined process that prioritizes making records available by default. Or at least, a bulk dump, in the case of the FBI and celebrity death files [2] [0] https://kotaku.com/nobody-can-find-the-source-code-for-icewind-dale-ii-1796724450 https://kotaku.com/nobody-can-find-the-source-code-for-icewi... [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ysjeu/iama_guy_who_has_been_reverse_engineering_final/c5yftp2/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ysjeu/iama_guy_who_ha... [2] https://vault.fbi.gov/popular-culture https://vault.fbi.gov/popular-culture

kube-system 7y ago

If you can write a program that can automate this, then you're a better programmer than most of us. https://www.justice.gov/oip/blog/foia-update-freedom-information-act-5-usc-sect-552-amended-public-law-no-104-231-110-stat https://www.justice.gov/oip/blog/foia-update-freedom-informa...

nyolfen 7y ago
the request end is automated at least: https://www.muckrock.com/foi/create/ https://www.muckrock.com/foi/create/