ftp archives disappearing?

On Mar 19, 2007, at 8:43 PM, Fred Cisin wrote: THIS makes sense. If you put up a big pile of juicy stuff on an FTP or web server and for some reason (bandwidth limitations or billing, etc) you don't want someone to slurp the whole thing, SAY SO SOMEWHERE, and also put into place rate- and connection-limiting functionality to control people who won't control themselves and comply with your wishes. This whole issue is very much a double-edged sword. Every now and then, I DO slurp down the entire contents of an online archive if I run across something and think "wow it would suck if this just went away". Most of the time this is with corporate sites, because lots of things (PDF docs, drivers, etc) just disappear at the whim of suits, and there's usually no other way to get ahold of it. I do respect posted "please don't download this entire archive all at once" requests when such requests are present. In some instances, this is the right thing to do, for the greater good. For example, if Don Maslin's (R.I.P.) boot disk archive had been available online in some form (yes I recognize the technical difficulties in doing so; I'm speaking hypothetically), I'd probably have a copy of it today, as I recognize the rarity of the data. The work he did was fantastic, and a great service to the community, but it'd sure suck if that effort were to completely die with him. -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL