Found and destroyed a map hijacker...

[Gamerprinter]

Sunday, I was posting some maps onto someone's FB group dedicated to links to free maps and maps for sale. I noticed a series of posts of a bunch of maps, one of which I recognized was of Torstan's maps (Jonathan Roberts) and well as several Mike Schley (WotC) maps. These maps were all sourced from a single online database. I sent PMs to Mike and Jonathan. Mike Schley responded right away and he and I began some polite, but firm conversation with the FB group's owner and got him to remove all offending maps on the FB page. Also Mike made efforts to contact owner of the database. As of today, that entire database that apparently has been in existence since 1994 with hundreds of posted hi-res maps, that none of which included applicable licenses, copyright information, proper attribution, permission nor links to legal resources of said maps - has been completely removed.

The page now only states... "Because there was too many material on this web site, especially images and maps, that were collected over the last 20 years and for which I do not have the proper copyright information, I have remove entirely all material from this server."

So another purveyor of stolen maps has been smote, and the world is a better place for cartographers.

Just for your information (anyone reading this) posting other people's maps without permission, proper attribution, appropriate licenses, legal sources of said maps, and copyright information anywhere online is copyright infringement - and something you shouldn't be doing.

GP

[tainotim]

This put a smile on my face after a long day. Great work Gameprinter! I wish there were more like you out there watching out for peoples hard work, catching those hijackers. It's needed and greatly appreciated

Cheers,
Tainotim

[J.Edward]

That was a good read GP. Excellent.

[Jaxilon]

Job well done GP.
I love that after being here for a few years I can readily identify a good number of artists just buy seeing a map they painted. A few years ago I found something similar and reported it whereupon the stolen art was removed.