diff --git a/data-discovery/src/main/java/vlkb/webapi/SearchServlet.java b/data-discovery/src/main/java/vlkb/webapi/SearchServlet.java
index 7a5e5f609abeadce37f91e996c4cc831509c7d12..7e0433682c468363a9cb2020418e6a772e2abd27 100644
--- a/data-discovery/src/main/java/vlkb/webapi/SearchServlet.java
+++ b/data-discovery/src/main/java/vlkb/webapi/SearchServlet.java
@@ -28,7 +28,6 @@ public class SearchServlet extends javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet
    {
       super.init();
 
-      LOGGER.info("URLs : " + settings.serviceUrls.toString());
       LOGGER.info("DB   : " + settings.dbConn.toString());
    }
 
diff --git a/data-discovery/src/main/java/vlkb/webapi/SearchSettings.java b/data-discovery/src/main/java/vlkb/webapi/SearchSettings.java
index 5d9db4379a8a971433f6b2bfde1966f6bfec874f..8e85f24f0adf6fa4fe35057e77c719ff8600d19a 100644
--- a/data-discovery/src/main/java/vlkb/webapi/SearchSettings.java
+++ b/data-discovery/src/main/java/vlkb/webapi/SearchSettings.java
@@ -30,31 +30,7 @@ class SearchSettings
       }
    }
 
-
-   public static class ServiceUrls
-   {
-      private String cutoutUrl;
-      private String mergeUrl;
-      private String surveysAbsPathname;
-
-      public boolean cutoutUrlIsSet() { return (cutoutUrl != null) && cutoutUrl.trim().isEmpty(); }
-      public boolean mergeUrlIsSet()  { return (mergeUrl != null) && mergeUrl.trim().isEmpty(); }
-      public boolean surveysAbsPathnameIsSet()
-       { return (surveysAbsPathname != null) && surveysAbsPathname.trim().isEmpty(); }
-
-      public String cutoutUrl() {return cutoutUrl;}
-      public String mergeUrl()  {return mergeUrl;}
-      public String surveysAbsPathname()  {return surveysAbsPathname;}
-
-      public String toString()
-      {
-         return cutoutUrl + "   "  + mergeUrl + "   " + surveysAbsPathname;
-      }
-   }
-
-
    public DBConn     dbConn;
-   public ServiceUrls serviceUrls;
 
 
    // will not start without config-file; no reasonable code-defaults can be invented
@@ -70,9 +46,8 @@ class SearchSettings
             properties.load(ins);
 
             DBConn      dbConn      = loadDBConn(properties);
-            ServiceUrls serviceUrls = loadServiceUrls(properties);
 
-            return new SearchSettings(dbConn, serviceUrls);
+            return new SearchSettings(dbConn/*, serviceUrls*/);
          }
          else
          {
@@ -89,10 +64,9 @@ class SearchSettings
 
 
 
-   private SearchSettings(DBConn dbConn, ServiceUrls serviceUrls)
+   private SearchSettings(DBConn dbConn)
    {
       this.dbConn      = dbConn;
-      this.serviceUrls = serviceUrls;
    }
 
 
@@ -107,16 +81,5 @@ class SearchSettings
       return dbConn;
    }
 
-
-   private static ServiceUrls loadServiceUrls(Properties properties)
-   {
-      ServiceUrls serviceUrls = new ServiceUrls();
-      serviceUrls.cutoutUrl = properties.getProperty("cutout_url","").strip();
-      serviceUrls.mergeUrl  = properties.getProperty("merge_url","").strip();
-      serviceUrls.surveysAbsPathname = properties.getProperty("surveys_metadata_abs_pathname","/srv/surveys/surveys_metadata.csv").strip();
-      return serviceUrls;
-   }
-
-
 }
 
diff --git a/data-discovery/src/main/resources/discovery.properties b/data-discovery/src/main/resources/discovery.properties
index 0f01bd5616e5651e8e9810e6ea99ed22a93e0418..eb3b59d791acaf9f28f0fd6d8be3966c23940eb8 100644
--- a/data-discovery/src/main/resources/discovery.properties
+++ b/data-discovery/src/main/resources/discovery.properties
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 
 # database with 'obscore' table
-db_uri=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/vialactea
-db_schema=datasets
+# db_uri=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/vialactea
+# db_schema=datasets
 db_user_name=
 db_password=
 
diff --git a/data-discovery/src/main/resources/formatresponsefilter.properties b/data-discovery/src/main/resources/formatresponsefilter.properties
index b5d903d4bd7b2d58da2643baa33db2c73ebc0471..a2fd398bb82299c02bf802346a26c3c1b9e90321 100644
--- a/data-discovery/src/main/resources/formatresponsefilter.properties
+++ b/data-discovery/src/main/resources/formatresponsefilter.properties
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 
-# database with 'surveys' table of metadata used to write VLKB-legacy response.xml
+# database with 'obscore' table
 #db_uri=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/vialactea
 #db_schema=datasets
-#db_user_name=
-#db_password=
-# FIXME above disabled; now read metadata from a file
+db_user_name=
+db_password=
+
+# VLKB-legacy: surveys metadata in csv file
 surveys_abs_pathname=
 
 # these URL's are used in response.xml so client can access those services