How should I feel about this?

Post by **SCIN** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 3:30 pm

Seems people are copying and pasting route descriptions from the online guide here straight into the guide at rockclimbing.com. Is this cool?

Description for Bathtub Mary in the online guide here:
This fine sport route begins ~15 feet right of "Sacriledge". Second line on the left as you approach the wall. A starting slab takes you to a thin section that is well protected. Save some juice for the upper section, and enjoy the solid pump. A good warmup on cold days. Not a summer route.

Description on rockclimbing.com:
Second line on the left as you approach the wall. A starting slab takes you to a thin section that is well protected. Save some juice for the upper section, and enjoy the solid pump. A good warmup on cold days. Not a summer route.

Citizen's Arete here:
This route begins just right of the obvious arete on the left side of the wall. It is the first route encountered on the wall. Climb the face until you run out of holds then make a big move left to the arete. Make another big move then ride the arete to the anchors.

Rockclimbing.com:
This route begins just right of the obvious arete on the left side of the wall. It is the first route encountered on the wall. Climb the face until you run out of holds then make a big move left to the arete. Make another big move then ride the arete to the anchors.

Post by **Wes** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 3:37 pm

Heh, welcome to the world of on line content. I used to get pissed when people did stuff like that with my photos, but kinda decided if it was on line already, there wasn't much I could really do. That said, any unauthorized commercial use would mean lawyers for sure.

Not really sure where rc.com fits in, but I would hold them closer to commercial use then a personal site. And, since they receive money for ads, and routes are part of their site, I would send them a polite email asking that any of your work be removed.

it is a fine line, eh? Like if I saw someone had one of my images for a profile pic on rc.com it wouldn't be a big deal. But, if they were using that for some kind of ad, or site promotion, etc, then I would ask them to take it down or pay.

Post by **Saxman** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 3:38 pm

I believe letting rockclimbing.com make money off of copyrighted material is wrong. I think its cool people can put in their own route descriptions, but ripping off yours and/or John's is wrong morally and legally.

Post by **SCIN** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 3:39 pm

Yea, I see the big "Petzl" stamp directly above my words. I wonder how my publisher would feel about that? I sent them an email.

Post by **overhung** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:10 pm

Not cool. I'd say the rockcliming.com guys are there to make money. Nothing's free when it comes to business.

Post by **pigsteak** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:12 pm

hey Ray, I want paid for all the bolts I put in so you can make money off my routes....

Post by **SCIN** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:23 pm

It's not just the money but the money is enough to make it more interesting. If I cared about the money I'd get sponsors for this site. For me it's just the fact that they're using an online guide and scraping the content right off of mine. That kind of pisses me off.

Post by **overhung** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:29 pm

SCIN wrote:It's not just the money but the money is enough to make it more interesting. If I cared about the money I'd get sponsors for this site. For me it's just the fact that they're using an online guide and scraping the content right off of mine. That kind of pisses me off.

Doesn't this fall under intellectual property rights? It's your descriptions, they did little or nothing to produce it... I say make them either pay or take it down.

Post by **Gaar** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:31 pm

I've had a couple of my photos ripped off the past year, by some big name companiens (not to be mentioned). I know how you feel. Being professional about the matter worked to resolve the situation for me. Not sure if Rockclimbing.com is really a professional site such as this one.

Send them a virus, that will work

Post by **clif** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:42 pm

don't know about the money, but it's definitely parasitic of the local cache of knowledge and experience for them to establish
an impression of credibility and reputation.

it is a wonderful quality of this site that ads do not distract. why would a link not suffice anyway?