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Archiveteam Saves 272 Terabytes of MobileMe Websites From Deletion

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A volunteer team has been downloading the entire publicly accessible contents of MobileMe webpages, iDisk folders, and photo galleries, ahead of the shutdown of the MobileMe service on June 30.

The team just finished the project, some four days ahead of their deadline. The project began late last yearn and ramped up as the team moved closer to the MobileMe shutdown date.

Mobilememoving

Archive Team has finished downloading MobileMe and .Mac before Apple deletes it on June 30. 272 terabytes. 380,000 users. HUUAAARRGG!!!

The Archive Team bills themselves as "a loose collective of rogue archivists, programmers, writers and loudmouths dedicated to saving our digital heritage." Among other things, the group offers a torrent with 641GB of Geocities sites and a scrape of 90 million tweets across 6 million Twitter accounts.

The group is not affiliated with website storing service Archive.org, but does work with them to preserve data.

Top Rated Comments

186 months ago
Perhaps I should have been a little more careful about what I put in Public in iDisk!!!
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ericrwalker Avatar
186 months ago
Perhaps I should have been a little more careful about what I put in Public in iDisk!!!

I don't use mobileme (did the trial), but that's exactly what I was thinking.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Big-TDI-Guy Avatar
186 months ago
Yeah, truly mixed feelings there, but if you put something on the internet - you really should assume it's public forever...
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tkermit Avatar
186 months ago
Where did they get the list of user names from? Just 'trial and error' ?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jlgolson Avatar
186 months ago
EXACTLY the reason why I won't put anything of any value to me anywhere outside of my physical control. Grabbing my iDisk content ? That's the same as stealing my wallet, to me. If you nick my wallet, purportedly for the purpose of archiving it for the future, I will still have lost my wallet, and it is still a theft. As long as companies can copy, archive, access, fiddle with my personal data, and they are free from culpability, they can forget about me using their services. Fair enough with the web sites, but iDisk data ??? Come on !!!
I think you misunderstand what's going on here. This isn't anyone's private files.

If you put your wallet on your front porch and put up a sign that said "ANYONE CAN LOOK AT THIS" -- would you get pissed if someone came and looked at it?

They are making copies of public websites for posterity, before they get taken down. They did the same thing with Geocities before Yahoo killed it.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
OddyOh Avatar
186 months ago
business model?

How much do they charge to get your files back? ;)
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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