There’s someone whose writing was very important to me but who took down much of it and who intentionally disappeared from online spaces, at least in a persona that can be easily linked back to that old work. I have some of the writing that was taken down saved on my own PC (via some Wayback Machine digging). I was playing with the idea of seeing if I could somehow contact them again and ask permission to rehost the essays on a Neocities site or some such, but if I was not able to find and contact them, is it unethical to rehost someone’s work like that without their permission?
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in reply to @sundry's post:
I'd go for a hard "yes" here, unfortunately. This person clearly wanted that work to remain buried, and without explicit confirmation to dig it up I'd err on the side of respectful caution.
Hm, I think that it's prob unethical to rehost wholesale - but it I'd say that maybe it's ok to be like, referring to a writer/piece that you read whilst not linking to their current presence (i.e. "a piece by jam about xx" which might be their handle/site at the time) - because that opens a conversation that might be good with people who knew it or even them maybe depending on reach.
Yeah, I think it's a no-go. You do have their work saved, so it's nice you have it for personal use/reading! (Intended as a self-reflection sort of question but actually answering me is also fine, I guess): Also, why do you want to repost/rehost their writing? What's your motivation there?
I see! From what you've written though it definitely sounds like the writer doesn't want their old writing to exist? Is that a fair/accurate read? (Or do you think they were more motivated by leaving a space and "going into hiding" and taking down their writing was just a part of that process?)
I am not sure, honestly. I was not involved in any social circles with them. My impression was it was part of generally wanting to disappear rather than specifically taking the writing down but I don’t really know and that’s probably reason enough not to republish it.