"Read" a URL?

[Brian Yennie]

> Actually I'm using the FTP protocol (I'm passing login info on the URL
> string) -- does the same limitation apply?

I'm guessing it's not in libURL, but the following could be scripted in:

http://cr.yp.to/ftp/retr.html

check out "RETR" and then "REST" - downloading from a given offset.

HTTP protocol also supports "byte ranges", but again, it requires 
digging into the protocol a bit.

HTH,
Brian