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Harry, you're using the same logic as the industry with the DRM: "we're putting these protections because all the nasty thieves out there would steal our hard work otherwise". The problem is, the DRM doesn't stop the determined people at all (they just use analog hole for music or scan/OCR for books) but it gives major headaches to legit users who just want to enjoy their content in the ways they want. The same is true here: removing the HTML files won't stop people from doing the same thing pruss did, but it will be a major hassle for many people, who never intended to "re-sell them to make a fast buck". (BTW, who are those "ethically-challenged people"? I keep hearing about them but I'm not sure I saw any examples. Do you happen to mean Silk Pagoda?)
Of course, posting these without RWood's prior pemission might be not very polite, but these books are public domain after all, so it's not illegal. However, I wish RWood himself posted original html0 files, which are as closest to "master copies" as we can get. Also, I think, it would be worth to produce html versions for Project Gutenberg as it's the main source of public domain books, and this collection would be a worthy addition.
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