I can't speak to the PC versions but in Acrobat 6 on the MAC if you go to the security pane of the Document Properties (command D) you can set the security to none. Then copy and paste at will.

I just downloaded a random sample. The main report and the appendices do not have a password on the security setting. Some of the exhibits do and some don't.

- Your title to the post was a little over the top Kevin.....till I read further I thought they'd altered the text, which based on the incredibly bad advice they seem to be following so far, really wouldn't surprise me. All in all it looks like the duplicity includes the whole damn bunch and really wasn't limited to Mapes and a small liberal cadre....

Big Bang Hunter, I understand from Commenter "JMS" at 1/13/05, 9:53 PM in Kevin's above link to Seth's site that new, different versions of the fake docs are also involved now at CBS's site. See the whole comment at sethf.com/infothought/blog/archives/000750.htm. Here's an excerpt:

***
"It appears to me that CBS has either inadvertently (or out of necessity due to the irreproducability of the crumpled document) just released an intermediate work product of the forgery process -- the document as it existed just prior to the final crumpling and uncrumpling step done before document scanning.

Doesn't CBS news' possession of forgery work product implicate them in the forgery process itself?

... CBS is apparently interested enough in preventing computer graphical analysis of the new copies of the documents to have taken this action."
****

I haven't checked this out myself. If true, it may explain why the latest blocking has occurred.

Sorry, dropped the "l". It's html, not htm in that link:
http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/archives/000750.html.

To be fair (now there's a word), CBS might be a bit touchy regarding protecting the documents they present. I understand they are concerned about potential forgeries of their work.

Just for kicks for those with time to waste, might I suggest figuring out the passwords used to see if they are biased? (i.e. ih8bu5h, k3rryo4, damnbl0g5, LGFsp3lls3vil, etc.)

For the record, each of the 4 pdfs of the fake docs at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/08/60II/main641984.shtml still have their 9/8/04 creation and modification dates.

Now I'll try to figure out what versions JMS is referring to.

Oh.my.god!!!! How weird can CBSgate get!

See jms 1/11/2005 02:30PM PST at LGF and JMS' animated comparison. Some of the dots are different in the 2 versions of the same fake doc!

The first "now you see it, now you don't" dot that caught my eye in JMS's animated comparison is about half an inch above "George", slightly to the right of the last "e" in George.

You can also use Adobe Acrobat 6 on a PC and turn the security off. The original was created with Adobe 5.0.5. The security must not translate properly to Adobe 6.

On my Macintosh, I can't turn of security on Acrobat Reader, but I can open the file with "Preview" then print to pdf and the resultant file is security free then with Acrobat Reader.

This seems like a childist prank, so it must be the lawyers.

- Is this going to turn into a situation where anyone investigating things in the future is faced with 300,000 "copies" of verious versions laying all over the offices of CBS....

- I'm waiting for the million dollar question to be asked and hearing the answer as .... "We have no idea...they just showed up on Mary's desk one day in a manilla envelope"....

Hee hee, Big Bang Hunter, that sounds like one of the many fake Howard Hughes wills - landing on a desk in a manilla envelope!

Just for the record - in case any officials EVER investigate CBSgate - there's been a change, but probably not willful alteration, in computer clocks:

When I looked at CBS's original 9/8/04 docs on their site this morning, I noticed their 4 pdf creation dates had all changed to the 5PM hour, instead of the 6PM hour as it used to be. (I have screen snapshots from 9/24/04 which show them at 6 PM.) I also checked USA Today, Foxnews and Lukasiak's sites. Their fake docs pdf creation times have all changed to one hour earlier. I guess the computers must have retroactively changed them when Daylight Savings Time went to Standard Time on the last Sunday in October 04.

(The filtermonster is eating my post, so I'll try it in 3 parts:)

EXHIBIT 2B DISCUSSION:
The fake doc dated "04 May 1972"
List of Links:

CBS's ONLINE 9/8/04 "CRUMPLED" VERSIONS OF 4 DOCS (faxed from Kinko's): here. The creation date of the 04 May 1972 fake doc pdf at CBS was: 9/8/04 6:08:23 PM (EDT), now it's 5:08:23 PM (EST). Although they were in possession of the docs before this, they waited to the last minute before the 60 Minutes II show aired to create (or newly re-create) their pdfs.

CBS's ONLINE EXHIBIT 2B: 12/31/04 "NON-CRUMPLED" VERSION (origin unknown), released 1/10/05, modified 1/13/05, 3:58 PM (EST) (i.e. security block added): here.

KLNG's EXHIBIT 2B: (Thornburgh's law firm) (origin unknown) (Same as CBS's 12/31/04 version; but modified (i.e. security block added) 9 hours earlier than CBS's on 1/13/05 at 6:54 AM EST): here.

Commenter JMS' animated comparison of the 9/8/04 version versus the 12/31/04 Thornburgh Report Exhibit 2B version (released by both CBS and KLNG).

(To be continued...)

Posts by JMS: jms 1/11/2005 02:30PM PST at LGF Comment #131 and there.

Wizbang Links: here and here.

USA Today's set of 6 fake docs with cut-and-paste crop markings, 9/9/04: here. (These were NOT FAXED to USA Today. One of their reporters personally picked them up from Burkett in Montana where he was visiting friends, on the night of CBS's airing 9/8/04.)

(More to come...)

FOXnews set of 4 fake docs, creation date 2/6/04 at 8:24 AM (EDT) (now it's 7:24 AM EST) (February date still unexplained, possibly faulty computer clock; fax marking on it is 10/10/04): here.

MSNBC's copies carry the header: 09/07/2004 09:51 12129751998 CBS NEWS. Their pdf creation date was 9/8/04 3:43:41 PM (hours before CBS's creation date/time).

PAUL "OETR x 7" LUKASIAK 4 fake docs at glcq.com, registered to him on 4/9/04, where he posted his opposition research, titled "The AWOL Project": At the docs index pg, click on "BushGuardmay4.pdf" Last modified 10-Sep-2004 08:24 115k. This is the "crumpled" version like CBS's earlier 9/8/04 version of the new Exhibit 2B.

Does anyone know if the Boston Globe, LA Times or any other of the MSM put copies online?