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Old 09-24-2013, 05:24 PM  
Forkbeard
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Join Date: Feb 2002
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It's true that you have no legal leg to stand on. None. Zero. Nada.

That said, our intellectual property laws are DEEPLY fucked if you start to consider externalities like the loss of genuinely orphaned intellectual property that the owner has abandoned. Mirroring of dead sites almost always a social good even when it's illegal. On this, the law is an ass.

So, let your conscience be your guide. The trick is to determine whether anybody will chase you or complain, rather than trying to worry about whether the law is on your side (it automatically isn't.)

One thing I do quite shamelessly is update old blog posts from the WayBack Machine if I happen to notice the links have died. Usually if I quoted two paragraphs from a great site and that site is long dead, if I happen to notice the dead link, I'll go get a much longer excerpt to replace my original polite short one.
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