The repositories contain GPL'd code. We don't need permission to download that. It would be polite to inform them and it might be beneficial to their customers and clients (and ours) and easier for everyone to coordinate with them.
Mirroring the forums would be good, and might not be too difficult. While a db dump would be best, it can also be mirrored by crawling. At my request several months ago, aD removed from their robots.txt entries around the web/db forum. So an honest, heartfelt, thank you aD! Nevertheless, I would think it best legally to ask permission to do so.
I'm not sure about the documentation. I don't believe it was "freed" so they almost certainly hold the copyrights. Same with the ASJ.
I strongly believe that what we propose is in aD's favor: it's akin to finding a second source to takeover support of an end-of-life'd product. It will help them offer a support path for prior customers, it will enable them to focus on their new initiatives, and it will reduce their bandwidth costs.
I believe the steps to take are
One: make a list of what we would like to mirror or "takeover support for" -- we can use this forum for that (again I suggest the repository, relevant ASJ articles, ACS Tcl project documentation, and relevant forums)
Two: enlist some "group" with credibility to approach aD.
Three: determine who at aD is in a position to grant OpenACS (or Ben or Don) permission and maybe even assign copyrights to the fora, and grant reproduction and distribution rights for the ASJ, documentation, or anything else we may want?
I do wish aD the best of luck. I've heard that they want to become a product company, and if so, that makes a lot of sense. I don't believe that VC and consulting organizations have ever made a good fit.
