lastUpdated file created for releases

I have a project depending transitively on easymock 2.4
(http://repo2.maven.org/maven2/org/easymock/easymock/2.4/)

When connecting to download the dependency, my network connection failed (for 5-10 seconds) which made maven stop with a connection timeout.

The issue is that a file has been created on my local repo for this release: easymock-2.4.jar.lastUpdated

So when i re-executed the mvn package command, Maven keeps stopping with the same error (connection timeout), whereas it is now came back and working.

I understand the purpose of the lastUpdated file: for snapshots they are more than required. But i really don't understand why the lastUpdated is also applied to releases. If a project is deployed and depends on a release version, I think Maven should keep trying to get this dependency in all available repository until it is found, because it's an illegal state to not find it.

Also, by working in a large company, I really think this lastUpdated file on releases could really prevent or slow down Maven 3 adoption since this is quite an annoying think that will slow down people and increase the work load of the maven support team (at least because Maven will report false-problems that could be now solved).

Is there an option or something that could be temporary put somewhere to get back to the same Maven 2 behavior ?

Thanks a lot,

Mathieu.