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What's wrong with these people? If the NSA cannot 'decode' a 1" videotape from the 1980s then heaven help us. 1" videotapes are comparatively modern by videotap

What's wrong with these people? If the NSA cannot 'decode' a 1" videotape from the 1980s then heaven help us. 1" videotapes are comparatively modern by videotape standards. Even the earlier 2" quadruplex machines, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadruplex_videotape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadruplex_videotape, can be read with machines such as the Ampex VR-2000B from 1968: https://archive.org/details/JL10231 https://archive.org/details/JL10231, and the Ampex VR-1000 from 1959 https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8096369/ampex-video-recorder-vr1000-video-recorder https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co80963.... Seems to me the NSA can't be bothered, or it's all too much trouble.

rlpb 2y ago
> Seems to me the NSA can't be bothered, or it's all too much trouble. I'm sure they could, but they do say: > NSA is not required to find or obtain new technology (outdated or current) in order to process a request. "the NSA" is a large organisation, and the journalist here was merely speaking to their FOIA handling department under the (narrow) scope of an FOIA request. Of course that department isn't going to do anything the law doesn't require them to do. That's their job. They aren't the "spend money on nice things for our heritage" department; nor do they have the budget to do that. They'd probably break some law about misuse of public funds if they did. If you want the NSA to do nice things for our heritage, then you need to ask further up the org chart. Probably at political level, if they don't already have a budget for such things.
- hilbert42 2y ago
  ""NSA is not required to find or obtain new technology (outdated or current) in order to process a request."" Agreed, but that indicates there's something very wrong with Government's archiving processes. Magnetic tapes, floppy and hard disks of any kind lose a certain percentage of their magnetic remanence every year and eventually they become unreadable even when old/obsolete playback machines are available to read them. That well-established fact ought to be known to anyone responsible for storing/archiving information in any of these magnetic formats together with knowledge of the correct procedures for long-term handling and preservation of such material—regeneration, transferring to digital media, to media with higher/better long-term remanence, etc. Videotape is no exception, moreover are you going to tell me the NSA doesn't have secret audio tape/cassette recordings in storage? The same would apply to these media as well. Seems to me National Archives ought to be involved as well. If the info is secret or such that the NSA has some reason not to trust National Archives with the media then liaison between the two branches of government should be such to at least ensure that NSA material is being preserved properly.

rlpb 2y ago

> Seems to me the NSA can't be bothered, or it's all too much trouble. I'm sure they could, but they do say: > NSA is not required to find or obtain new technology (outdated or current) in order to process a request. "the NSA" is a large organisation, and the journalist here was merely speaking to their FOIA handling department under the (narrow) scope of an FOIA request. Of course that department isn't going to do anything the law doesn't require them to do. That's their job. They aren't the "spend money on nice things for our heritage" department; nor do they have the budget to do that. They'd probably break some law about misuse of public funds if they did. If you want the NSA to do nice things for our heritage, then you need to ask further up the org chart. Probably at political level, if they don't already have a budget for such things.

hilbert42 2y ago
""NSA is not required to find or obtain new technology (outdated or current) in order to process a request."" Agreed, but that indicates there's something very wrong with Government's archiving processes. Magnetic tapes, floppy and hard disks of any kind lose a certain percentage of their magnetic remanence every year and eventually they become unreadable even when old/obsolete playback machines are available to read them. That well-established fact ought to be known to anyone responsible for storing/archiving information in any of these magnetic formats together with knowledge of the correct procedures for long-term handling and preservation of such material—regeneration, transferring to digital media, to media with higher/better long-term remanence, etc. Videotape is no exception, moreover are you going to tell me the NSA doesn't have secret audio tape/cassette recordings in storage? The same would apply to these media as well. Seems to me National Archives ought to be involved as well. If the info is secret or such that the NSA has some reason not to trust National Archives with the media then liaison between the two branches of government should be such to at least ensure that NSA material is being preserved properly.