Well, I hope no one dies with a set of them; far be it from me to wish a quietus on anyone, much less a fellow GT40 enthusiast. Let's be realistic here and not let rhetoric carry us away, something to which I am particularly prone.
I have seen the enormous lengths that fellow members (Andy and Jay, just to name two) are going to in order to reproduce GT40 bits and pieces; the amount of effort is huge. I am glad there are people who want to make this items, because if they didn't, I'd have to get them somewhere, possibly made as individual units at MUCH higher costs. I don't want to have to do that.
Some of our fellow members are people who have a lot of machining expertise and are really able to make anything they wish to for a GT40. Good for them. I can't do that- wish I could. So I have to find the parts other ways; either by buying them from someone else who is able to make them, or has them used, or by getting them made locally by people who are not GT40 enthusiasts but are good machinists and can make something as a copy or from a drawing. I CAN make drawings, after a fashion. Sort of.
I have the impression that some of our members are using the reproduction of various parts as a way to finance the construction of their own cars. Good for them; I'm happy to buy parts from them if that helps them along their way and gets me something I need. And if they have paid for a set of GT40 plans in order to be able to make those parts, then the purchase of the plans is part of their cost of doing business and they are entitled to price their parts in such a way as to try to recoup the costs of them.
But I don't think that just having a set of plans out in public view will make any difference to those folks who are making GT40 parts in small quantities. If anything, it may increase their order volume, since potential buyers would then be able to refer to a specific part and drawing when ordering what they need. Speaking only for myself, I would MUCH rather call up someone (like Jay) who already makes GT40 parts and ask him to give me a price on something made from a specific drawing. Or organize a group buy of something made from a specific drawing. I don't want to walk into Acme Machine Shop and ask them to make something they've never seen the original of.
My point here, which I am not doing a very good job of putting across, is that there is a great deal more to making these parts than just having a drawing of them. To beat my old analogy one more time, I can look at drawings all day long of how to do a medical procedure, but looking at the drawings and actually DOING it are two totally different things. We all know that even from the drawings (which are old, revised, etc, as Jay pointed out) it could very well take multiple tries to make one functional part. So I see the availability of the drawings, whatever is out there, as an information resource which I would be happy to have available. The drawings, though, are not the only resource and they are most valuable when interpreted by someone who has looked at a lot of GT40s, handled a lot of GT40 parts, and made a lot of GT40 parts.
To use a final analogy, and maybe a better one, looking at the drawings is kind of like seeing the score of a great piece of classical music, if you can read music that well. Sure, you can "hear" it in your head by reading the score- kind of.
Then you hear it, performed by a live orchestra. And you REALLY hear it. That's the difference- the interpretation and execution of the instructions. The drawings are the instructions- not the performance.