On the other hand, searchyc.com seems to have a copy of everything on HN. And I believe jacquesm has siphoned off much of the database for his personal offline

On the other hand, searchyc.com seems to have a copy of everything on HN. And I believe jacquesm has siphoned off much of the database for his personal offline analysis. And, of course, Google and other engines download, cache, and index the content. If you really want it, discreet spidering seems to be the way to go.