> OK, I tried that and it does NOT work.
> The contents of the first level external links are not 
> copied. I even tried it without the ( -* ) and it still 
did 
> not copy the external links. And if I use the default 
scan 
> rules only with external depth =1, it tries to copy the 
> whole world.
> What else should I do? Any ideas? 

Err that's right, I'm adding the problem on the TODO list - 
a workaround might be to use:

-* +*.gif +*.jpg +*.png +*.css +*.js +*.pdf ..

if you also want first level html files this will be more 
complex ; the best way would be to add 1st level html among 
with other URLs too or use the URL list feature (with all 
links in a text file, one link per line)