rootaxs,
I've used RackShack and it's parent company for 2 years, and my understanding is the same as your's.
Also, while I've seen mention from CW of a 'disclosure' agreement. Uhhh... I don't remember signing one, and I've never seen anyone else here mention it.
But, there is an agreement. And it basically says you who rents it, are respondsible for what goes in and comes out. Spamming for example, is frowned upon. Big Time.
See, these guys really are establishing a community and trying to supply the needed bandwidth.
Did all the RS accounts go down at the same time ? Assuming they were brought on line with different anniversary dates, how does that happen ?
And since the standard drag is a hundred bucks a box, you'd think maybe one could have been kept up. You know, in case you wanted to keep your 'community' informed.
(Even at that rate, his initial 'loss leader' rate could never have been maintained, with modest bandwidth considerations, let alone the bug zappers that followed.)
preCRT has linked an article discussing the Cobalts, above. I agree that a real company can only keep their production equipment off line for a limited amount of time. I'm just not sure how in the world RS could accomodate those who would like to get the data files backed-up and d/l'd. But if an effort were to be made, it would need to start pretty quick.