Hello,
In a few words, I’m a webmaster of http://www.refuges.info, and I need your help.
Now, with the story:
Maybe you know of http://www.refuges.info, a website listing mountains huts and lodges in the Alps.
It is primarly useful for planning skiing/hiking trips on multiple days.
Three years ago, the IGN (Institut Geographique National, french agency like the Ordnance Survey for UK) made a joint lawsuit with another company and sued the website host for copyright issues about maps extracts.
As of february, the judicial appeals came to an end. The site-hosting company has been sentenced to a 16,000 euros fine.
As the webmaster of the website, I decided to participate for half the amount myself. The website host is a friend of mine who could difficultly sustain such an expense.
If you already knew about this website, and you found it useful, it would be very kind of you to help us, now that we are in trouble.
For the complete story (in french): refuges.info/statique/condamnation.php
To make a donation (also in french): refuges.info/statique/don.php
The facts are undoubtables; I have pirated IGN maps to put some extract on the website and never hide it. But I always denied the amount of the prejudice. I recall davidoff participating to the website years ago, when the topo maps were still online, and I’m sure he doesn’t recall that as a piratery thing.
Thanks for the number one serious european ski/mountaineering source.