Terms of use

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The terms for reading and quoting these guides.

These terms cover your use of implbits.com and the guides published on it. By reading or using the site you agree to them. They are written to be short and plain; if anything is unclear, ask us.

Using these guides

The guides on this site are general technical information. They explain how to check files, images, documents and text with common tools, and what each check can and cannot prove. They are not legal, forensic or security advice for your particular situation.

Commands change the systems they run on, and systems differ. Before you run a command from this site:

  • Read it in full and make sure you understand what it does.
  • Check it against your own system, version and shell.
  • Back up anything important, especially before changing system settings, environment variables or domain membership.
  • Run it with the least privilege that works, and only use an administrator account when a guide says the step needs one.

If a check on this site matters for a decision with real consequences, such as an academic case, a legal matter or a security incident, use it as one piece of evidence and confirm it with the people responsible for that decision.

Quoting and sharing

You are welcome to link to any page on this site, from anywhere, without asking.

You may quote short passages, including commands, in your own work, forum posts, documentation or teaching material, as long as you credit Implbits and link to the page you quoted. Commands are meant to be copied: paste them into your terminal, your scripts and your notes freely.

Please do not republish whole guides or large parts of them, or present them as your own. If you want to use more than a short passage, write to us first.

Names of products and companies mentioned on this site, including HashTab, Windows, macOS and the tools we describe, belong to their owners. Mentioning them does not mean those owners endorse this site, or that this site is connected with them. This site is not affiliated with Implbits Software, LLC.

No warranty

We check commands against vendor documentation and run them where a page says so, and we cite primary sources for facts. Even so, we cannot promise that every guide is complete, current or right for your system. The site is provided as it is, without any warranty.

To the extent the law allows, Implbits is not liable for any loss or damage that results from using the site or relying on its guides, including data loss, system problems or decisions made on the strength of a check.

Pages link to other websites, such as standards bodies, vendor documentation and research papers. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content or their policies.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. When we do, the updated date on this page changes. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the new terms.

Contact

Questions about these terms, requests to reuse more than a short passage, and reports of errors all go to editor@implbits.com.

To learn how these guides are written and checked, read about Implbits. The contact page explains what to include in a correction, and the privacy policy explains the little data this site handles.