MP and REI: Official Announcement

Mike wrote:I wonder about the (still) unanswered questions: Can REI use our submitted pictures for their own purposes without our permission? Also can they keep all the info on the route database for themselves, then print & sell it like a guidebook? Maybe these were already answered and my reading comprehension sucks.

If REI owns the site than the answer to both questions is yes.

If they didn't buy the site just donated money to help fund the site than no to both.

Congratulations guys! You deserve some pay back for all the hard work you've put in over the years!

Looking forward to an updated website and the features a re-build will allow. Congratulations, I think this is a good thing for MP.

I invite you all to use any of my contributions to this site.
Take it, use it, if you can profit from it, great.

Congrats on the big news MP.

chris21 wrote: If REI owns the site than the answer to both questions is yes. If they didn't buy the site just donated money to help fund the site than no to both.

not necessarily - depends on how the new ownership agreement is structured. There's no hard and fast rule regarding this stuff (law student, not a lawyer yet).

Congrats on the payday gents and congrats on the fantastic resource you have made and will continue to make for the community.

Many thanks from a young fella who isn't quite sure what a guideBOOK even is..

Jon Frisby wrote: not necessarily - depends on how the new ownership agreement is structured. There's no hard and fast rule regarding this stuff (law student, not a lawyer yet).

Umm... yes if REI owns the site or are given permission by the owners of the site it's in the user terms and conditions.

"Our Right to Use Your Content
We may use Your Content in a number of different ways, including copying it, publicly performing or displaying it, reformatting it, modifying it, translating it, incorporating it into advertisements and other works, creating derivative works from it, promoting it, distributing it, and allowing others to do the same in connection with their own websites and media platforms (“Other Media“). As such, you hereby irrevocably grant us world-wide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable rights to use Your Content for any purpose."

I have a lot of respect for REI and purchase from them frequently. MP has been my go to asset since I started climbing 2 years ago. I believe this relationship will be an improvement for everyone, I look forward to the advancements.

Will rei have a display rack carrying all the latest Project shirts and schwag?

And...

if you've abused their return policy and boasted about it here on MP, could one be in danger of losing both memberships?

chris21 wrote: Umm... yes if REI owns the site or are given permission by the owners of the site it's in the user terms and conditions. "Our Right to Use Your Content We may use Your Content in a number of different ways, including copying it, publicly performing or displaying it, reformatting it, modifying it, translating it, incorporating it into advertisements and other works, creating derivative works from it, promoting it, distributing it, and allowing others to do the same in connection with their own websites and media platforms (“Other Media“). As such, you hereby irrevocably grant us world-wide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable rights to use Your Content for any purpose."

Well - they could have written in a clause preventing usage of photos for REI-brand sales without it destroying this other one. Though there's not necessarily a good reason for them to have done so. Notice that some five ten climbers are adidas climbers and some are not. Same principle at work.

Based on a DNS snafu last week, I would guess that MP moved to a newer and better hosting platform so improvements have already begun.

Thanks for all the questions and replies. Here's a small follow-up:

• REI isn't interested in the mass use of our photos. They have SO many great professional photos of their own.
• REI already has access to millions of user-generated photos on their own site at rei1440project.com/
• Creating a book from MP content is just bassackwards... They're interested in supporting a community with modern tools.
• REI is headquartered in Kent, WA. We are staying in Boulder, hiring our own people, running our own servers, and using our own IT equipment.

We essentially remain an independent startup but now have the solid backing to make sure we keep going - with the huge benefit of not dealing with taxes, accounting, legal, and a lot of crap that bogged us down. It's hard to overstate how good this is for MP.

Congratulations Nick, Andy, and others!

Sure is a lot of speculation and aluminum foil hat wearing on this thread. It sounds like some folks are thinking Koch or BP bought Mountain Project so that they could access environmental info in order to better plan well sites. Dude, it's REI. As far as big nasty evil corporations go, REI is basically amongst the most responsible (people and planet). If only the big boys traded on Wall Street were as chill as REI, we could all have a coke and a smile.

Disclaimer: REI, please feel free to use any and all content I have contributed to this site. Hell, send it to the NSA for all I care, because I'm sure they're interested in seeing my woody and my rack. Also, super duper congrats to the creators of this site. Hard work, dedication and lots of man hours went in to developing this site, and you guys are finally reaping some monetary benefits.

Steven Groetken wrote:...because I'm sure they're interested in seeing my woody and my rack.

In any other context this would mean something very different, haha. Yes, I'm 12 years old.

Congrats on all of your hard work paying off.

J. Albers wrote:Nick, this is an honest question. What happens if we the community members try and remove our content? Does that actually remove it or does REI have a backup of all of the content that they can use in perpetuity whether we like it or not? To be clear, I am most certainly not a conspiracy theory type, but I won't lie, I don't trust any company to act in the best interests of anyone but themselves. Thus I think most folks around here would like to know the terms and conditions under which the content that they have or will in the future donate (it is after all a donation of time, effort, and knowledge). I think I probably speak for many around here in thinking that we the content providers didn't mind donating our efforts to the community when the content was owned by actual members of the community (i.e. you, Andy, and the rest of the MP community). But REI is not part of our community. In other words, when I added content I was implicitly trusting your and Andy's judgement. I do not afford REI that level of trust and thus I would like to know in more detail what is going to happen to our donations.

i rely on MP to find moderates in my area or areas of travel. I rarely get to climb the last 10 years, but when I do, MP is the first place I look. Hopefully you deleting content wont remove otherwise good climbs for me. That is why you posted them right? To share with people like me, not stroke your ego?

what if your pic showed up on an in store ad in an REI. would you really care? are you the kind of person that would start screaming about 'getting paid' for using your very public pic?

deleting your content is actually doing what you are accusing the evil corporation of doing in the future. Except you are actually beating them to it.

Sorry to ask a silly question, but what does REI expect to get out of this deal?

Cocoapuffs 1000 wrote:Sorry to ask a silly question, but what does REI expect to get out of this deal?

The right to advertise to an outdoor audience (us). Maybe something else?

To the folks in this thread who are now suddenly worried about how REI might use their valuable "content":

If you want to keep full ownership and all rights exclusively.....

DON'T FUCKING PUT IT ON THE INTERNET!!!!