Well Chris, I care as the same has happened to me just this week.

My much visited (how often I don't know but the feedback has always been terrific) and used website, "The Ants of sub-Saharan Africa", has been put off line by the AMNH after some 14 years of evolving existence as a consequence of a unilaterally perceived concern over copyright breaches by the enormously useful Antbase.org

My site which costs the AMNH nothing other than the costs of server maintenance (?), which has never been raised as an issue, ironically builds directly on the tradition of the great Congo Expedition and Wheeler's 1922 Ants of the Congo, an AMNH milestone proudly acclaimed on the Museum website.

Since transferral to the AMNH, as a sub-unit of Antbase.org, I have received many, many emails of appreciation and seeking cooperation, etc. The issue of copyright has never been raised. The taxonomic component includes fully documented webpages on 1925 named and as yet unnamed species, In part, this is because something like two-thirds of the fully referenced material, i.e. digital copies of original descriptions and illustrations, pre-dates 1940 (1372 of ca 2000 species). The main sources of modern literature are the publications by B Bolton, for which I was granted permission to use by the Natural History Museum, London. All the other modern material originates from open-source publications, e.g. in Zootaxa, and websites, such as Antweb.org. All species pages have a link to the appropriate page on Antbase.org.

The species pages include my personal drawings of 171 species and my personal photographs of 763 species, plus a small number of photographs sent to me for use on the website.

The site also includes illustrated keys compiled by me. Some have their roots in published keys and many are wholly original. Copyright of published keys probably has no relevance as almost all those of the modern (post-1940) era incorporate elements from earlier literature.

The site as a whole is unique for ants, even on a global scale, in having a large quantity of ecological observations and reviews, all of which are fully referenced.

Last but not least, the site contains completely novel work on specimens from the 25 African countries and some forty collectors.

Apparently, such knowledge is of no consequence to the AMNH.

I do not know when the site will re-open although there is a regularly updated archive version on the UK Web Archive at http://www.webarchive.org.uk/ukwa/

The issue of "permanency" of sites such as ours has been a worry of mine almost since I started the site. The first version shut when the hosting project leader retired and the research group moved to another University.

Before anyone asks, I have never actually worked for an academic institution, University, Museum, whatever, since my post-doc venture into the real world of entomology, i.e. where the insects do their thing. I did, however, get great and spontaneous support for my mosquito taxonomy work in the early 1970's from the Bishop Museum and John Belkin at UCLA.

I conclude by expressing my gratitude to the AMNH for almost a decade of hosting and to Donat Agosti, who got my site under the umbrella of Antbase.

Good luck to you in finding a way to re-open your database.

Brian Taylor

On 17/02/2012 03:05, "Chris Thompson" <xela...@cox.net> wrote:

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