On August 19, 2016 we sent the following email to customers who purchased any of our guidebooks to climbing in Southern Ontario between March and May of 2016. Below you’ll see some frequently asked questions about these guidebooks, and our answers.
Message to our valued Ontario guidebook customers:
As you may be aware, we were forced by legal issues and concerns to stop selling any further copies of our Ontario guidebooks in late May, although customers who had already purchased them were able to continue enjoying the guidebooks.
We were heartened by the demand from the Ontario community for our digital guidebooks, and eager to offer books for sale again, and just as importantly to find a way to offer our existing customers continued updates and improvements. Although we were unable to resolve the issues that prevented distribution of the previous guidebooks, we were fortunate enough to build a partnership with Gus Alexandropoulos & Justin Dwyer, long-time fixtures of the Ontario climbing community, authors of Ontario Climbing volumes 1 and 2, and operators of the ontarioclimbing.com website.
Gus and Justin have been hard at work producing rakkup guides to the same popular areas we covered previously, on an aggressive schedule that includes release of the first two guidebooks today and the remainder in the coming weeks. Furthermore, they have generously agreed to support us in offering every customer who purchased one of the earlier guidebooks a free copy of their new guidebooks. And we have to say that while we were proud of the books we released this Spring, the new guides cover even more climbs, include great photography, and shine in the thoroughness of their research (benefitting from their heritage in the team’s print guidebooks).
As we release each of these digital books, owners of the earlier books will automatically have the corresponding new book placed on their Bookshelf in the rakkup app on their mobile devices. (If you had previously purchased our guides to Mount Nemo or The Swamp, those books are already on your bookshelf now. We will send a short notification email to owners of the Old Baldy, Metcalfe, Lion’s Head, and Devil’s Glen guidebooks when the new titles are released.)
Please take a moment to visit your Bookshelf in our app and tap the “cloud” icon to download your complimentary new guidebook so that it’s ready for you to use at the crag, even when you’re out of your service area. We anticipate that at some time later this year we will be unable to continue supporting the previously-released guidebooks and they will be removed from your rakkup Bookshelf. We trust that you will find the replacement guidebooks more than satisfactory.
If you have further questions, please check out our FAQ below or contact us if we have not addressed your concerns.
Thank you for supporting rakkup, and happy climbing!
Todd and Rob
Co-Founders
Frequently Asked Questions:
Why were your Ontario guidebooks unavailable for purchase during the summer season?
How serious was the issue? Couldn’t you resolve it and resume selling the original guidebooks?
What books are available again today? When will you have the other Ontario guidebooks available for sale again?
I purchased one or more Ontario guidebooks between May and March of 2016. How can I get the latest and greatest books? What will happen to the guidebook(s) that I purchased?
How do I access and use my replacement Ontario guidebooks?
Does my replacement guidebook have as many climbs and topos as the old one?
How long will I receive free updates for my Ontario guidebooks?
What about my ticks?
Who are the new Ontario guidebook authors?
I received my Ontario guidebooks because I contributed to a Kickstarter campaign. What will happen to my rakkup guidebooks? Will I still receive the print guidebook?
Answers:
Why were your Ontario guidebooks unavailable for purchase during the summer season?
We were notified of a possible legal issue in May 2016, and decided that we felt obligated to immediately remove the books from sale pending deeper investigation. Because we want our guidebooks to represent the highest standards of thoroughness, professionalism, and originality, we take the rights of all guidebook authors very seriously. Unfortunately, we were unable to receive sufficient assurances from various members of the Ontario climbing community that it would be prudent to resume sale of the books and have elected to keep those titles out of our marketplace. However, as detailed below, we are pleased to be able to offer an alternative set of books that we believe is the best choice for meeting our goal of offering the most complete and detailed guidebooks available in any medium for the climbing areas they cover, written by respected local experts.
How serious was the issue? Couldn’t you resolve it and resume selling the original guidebooks?
We did not take this decision lightly, and these events have come at a cost to our business.
Some have raised concerns that this was a result of baseless accusations, or was an attempt to appropriate ownership of information that belongs in the public domain for the benefit of the climbing community. We vigorously defend our right, and the rights of our authors, to complete in an open marketplace and abide by the principle that routes on public land, their names, and the facts that describe them are in the public domain. If that had been the nature of the dispute, we would have defended the work we published together to the fullest extent we could.
We value and respect our author’s hard work and partnership. We worked hard with him to explore a variety of options and consider how to restore the books to our marketplace. Regrettably, our author ultimately admitted that sloppiness in his production process resulted in inclusion of creative work that is subject to copyright protection, and which was not appropriately licensed, and was unable to obtain suitable permissions. This was in violation of earlier representations and agreements we had entered into, and put us in an essentially indefensible position. We also respect the intellectual property rights of those who create original content, just as we would want our rights to be honored, and as a matter of integrity felt that we had to proceed as we did.
We recognize that we will never be able to please all members of the community, but we hope to communicate that we had information that may not be available to the general public and we stood by principles of integrity rather than what would maximize our own profits, knowing some parties will not approve.
When will you have the other Ontario guidebooks available for sale again?
All six previously released Ontario guidebooks have been replaced and can be found here: Ontario Guidebooks
I purchased one or more Ontario guidebooks between May and March of 2016. How can I get the latest and greatest books? What will happen to the guidebook(s) that I purchased?
We are very pleased to announce that all customers who bought one of our Ontario guidebooks previously has received a replacement guidebook. All Ontario guidebooks sold between March-May 2016 are no longer supported. We will be unable to maintain access to those books and they will cease to be accessible from the rakkup app. Therefore, we encourage you to download your replacement guidebook(s) as soon as you have the opportunity.
How do I access and use my replacement Ontario guidebooks?
When you receive a guidebook release notification email from rakkup, your new complementary guidebook will be waiting for you on your rakkup bookshelf. To ensure that you see it, you must be logged in to our iOS or Android app with the same account you used when purchased your original Ontario guidebook, and connected to the internet. (If you already have the Bookshelf open, try tapping the refresh button in the upper right hand corner.) All you have to do is tap the “cloud” icon next to your new book(s) to download all contents (including photos) to your mobile device, to ensure that the guidebook is available even when you’re out of cellular coverage. If for any reason you still don’t see your complementary guidebook, contact us via our contact page and we will get you up and running.
Does my new guidebook have as many climbs and topos as the old one?
Yes! In fact, it has more, plus the route descriptions are richer benefitting from Gus & Justin’s years of experience climbing and authoring print guidebooks in Ontario.
How long will I receive free updates for the my replacement Ontario guidebooks?
You will receive free updates for one year from the date at which we release the replacement title and put the guidebook on your bookshelf, thus extending the update period of your original purchase by several months.
What about my ticks?
If you ticked any climbs in your original guidebooks, those ticks will not automatically transfer to your replacement guidebooks. (Note that not all climbs have the exact same name in both books.) We recommend recording your existing ticks in your new guidebook as soon as possible. (A handy way to see a list of your current ticks is to open your rakkup guidebook, go to the Climb List tab, use the Filter command from the upper-right menu, and filter your list to remove unticked climbs.) You can now also use My Ticks in rakkup.
Who are these new Ontario guidebook authors?
Gus Alexandropoulos & Justin Dwyer are not new at all! They are long-time fixtures of the Ontario climbing community, authors of Ontario Climbing volumes 1 and 2, and operators of the ontarioclimbing.com website. You can read more about Gus & Justin on our author bio pages.
I received my Ontario guidebooks because I contributed to a Kickstarter campaign. What will happen to my rakkup guidebooks? Will I still receive the print guidebook?
If you received rakkup guidebooks as a reward for contributing to Jesse Wong’s Kickstarter print guidebook campaign, you will receive all six replacement guidebooks as they are released. We are not involved in the production of the print book, so we can’t speak to the project’s status. For any questions regarding the print guidebook, please email Jesse Wong or contact the Kickstarter campaign.