First of all, I agree with mouz that Nautilus should support the function, because it suggests support, and because it's possible to support it. Most FTP-clients support recursive operations, and in Nautilus, part of the needed code is already available (Nautilus is able to count the number of items in folders on FTP-sites).
Second, it's not about recursive operations. Even copying an empty folder results in this error.
First of all, I agree with mouz that Nautilus should support the function, because it suggests support, and because it's possible to support it. Most FTP-clients support recursive operations, and in Nautilus, part of the needed code is already available (Nautilus is able to count the number of items in folders on FTP-sites).
Second, it's not about recursive operations. Even copying an empty folder results in this error.