Where did G2XPL go?

[Colin S]

So I've seen quite a few people post this question around many different forums (including ones from which I have been banned):

 

What happened to G2XPL and where can I download it?

 

In November, I uploaded a scenery file for KFCI on request of a friend in a Facebook group. The imagery was sourced from Google Maps and I had been too ignorant to read their Terms of Use prior to saving it. Within a day, I had received an non-capitalized grammatically incorrect message from your friend, Six7. The message went something like this:

 

i guess google has changed their terms of use, moron. delete the file or u will be banned

 

That wasn't very impressive. One thing I cannot stand, being an "A" English and a History student, is unprofessional presentation. If he had calmly explained it without an insult and with spell check activated, perhaps I would have returned respect. No way. I just deleted the file and sent him a message similar to the one that follows, after some inquiry as to the terms of service, of course presented in a very vulgar and rude way from Mr. Six7 (whose identity I later learned but will not disclose):

 

I am not impressed with your lack of professional conduct. I have removed the scenery on your request, however I would like to inform you that there are other scenery files and tools utilizing Google Maps data and imagery.

 

I also sent a message to Nicolas.

 

Six7, one of your moderators, sent a rude and insulting message to me when I had mistakenly uploaded a file that violated legal terms. I would like you to please talk to him and request that he keep up a professional personality when he is dealing with such situations.

 

You can only guess what happened next, I was permanently banned, IP and all. I can't even reset my router to get back on. That website has ceased to be from my point of view.

 

Anyways, I tried to think of a far play that could get me back at them. I had already used a false identification as I had been banned before for asking about Mr. Chang and his wonderful work. I would have to be careful. They were two points ahead of me and I only had one potential point to gain. Then it dawned on me that I had downloaded a scenery tool that never worked for me because of its strange architecture but it was designed for the average X-Plane user to create his own orthoscenery: G2XPL.

 

I proceeded to hunt down a friend of mine who was in law school and they said "just basically read the terms of use. If they are in violation of the terms of use, then they can be sued. If they are providing a tool which is in violation of the terms of use, they can be sued." Wow. It's that easy.

 

I proceeded to create a three page document outlining the terms of use of Bing Maps, Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, even MapQuest (although I pity the fool...) and created long interpretations that could not be misinterpreted. Fortunately, of all events in this situation, I saved this email that I sent to the administrators at X-Plane.org and XPFW, as they are almost all the same people.

 

***************

 

To all administrators of X-Plane.org, Forums.X-Plane.org, and related sites:
This is a notification of possibly illegal software available from your site.

I was recently made aware of a certain "G2XPL" addon available on the X-Plane.org forums. This file is completely illegal. If no action is taken to remove it from the website I will report it for violation of copyright and terms of use of Google, subsidiaries and many other organizations.

1. The add-on accesses, uses, and shows Google Earth/Maps imagery without visible attribution being present at all times.
   http://www.google.com/permissions/geoguidelines.html
2. The add-on accesses, uses, and shows, and under certain circumstances saves Google Earth/Maps imagery without written documentation from Google, Inc. stating that they have explicit permission for use of all imagery available through the Google servers. This is a direct violation of Google Maps Terms of Use, Section 2, Part A through Part F.
   http://www.google.com/intl/en_ALL/help/terms_maps.html
3. All of the above statement(s) are in direct violation of Google Maps Terms of Use, Section 3, Part C, Part E (in result of all other infringements), Part I (directly quoted; "[Any party is prohibited to] use any robot, spider, site search/retrieval application, or other device to retrieve or index any portion of the Google services or Content, or collect information about users for any unauthorized purpose", as there is no legal documentation of permission having been given to the creator of Gmaps to X-Plane.

Please consider this very carefully. I expect to receive documentation of permission from Google, Inc. immediately. It may be sent to this email address. Otherwise, I will attempt to contact as many of the organizations that could be at risk in this situation and raise their awareness of the illegal activity on the website.

I was banned from the forums for posting of "illegal" files. Therefore, this file should be removed with the same intention and the user who created it should be banned. I am doing my duty to the law and attempting to reduce piracy and illegal action due to my realization of my ignorant activities.

Yours respectfully,
Colin J. S.

A copy of this email has been sent to many other X-Plane related websites.

 

***************

 

The G2XPL addon was immediately pulled from the website. I cannot quote from the email I received in reply as it was lost in a clearout of my inbox, however he said something along the lines of what follows:

 

look kid, knock it off. if you dont leave us alone well take your parents to court. we have their contact information

 

He proceeded to provide faulty information that he obviously got from a 5 minute search on 411.ca.

 

Here ends the story of how G2XPL ceased to be. In case you thought I was just some kid who is learning how to build scenery and loves every bit of it, yep, you're right. I also professionally pissed off Mr. Taureau, and with founded causes.

 

Hope you now understand a bit more, now I sit here waiting for hate messages to roll into my inbox...

[Peter T.]

Org has the worst moderators on the internet, if i had the chance to buy the forum and site, i will totally revamp the site and install better moderators

[Nicola_M]

You did what you felt was right. No one can blame you for that.

[Colin S]

You did what you felt was right. No one can blame you for that.

 

I personally believe that Google Imagery would be (and sometimes is) absolutely stunning in X-Plane, I think they should integrate (although Google X-Plane doesn't have a nice ring to it, and Google would ruin it anyways). However, when I can play the devil's advocate in a situation where someone I, and many, many others hate, is the victim of legal truths, I do. I'm sorry to people from whom I ripped this tool, but it's one of those things I think has to be sacrificed for the benefit of the world.

[BimmerCop]

Hey Colin, did you also fix up KFCI with buildings and stuff? I live 5 minutes from KFCI and would love to have it nicely rendered in XP.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[Colin S]

Hey Colin, did you also fix up KFCI with buildings and stuff? I live 5 minutes from KFCI and would love to have it nicely rendered in XP. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

If you're trying to piss me of, it's not working. It's in my list of possible futures after PHNL but right now PHNL could be the last airport I ever do.

 

I would find it incredibly difficult to make buildings for KFCI. I started working on them but they are all too unique and complex to use default provided structures. I'll see about it. Don't count on anything.

[BimmerCop]

Hey Colin, did you also fix up KFCI with buildings and stuff? I live 5 minutes from KFCI and would love to have it nicely rendered in XP. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

If you're trying to piss me of, it's not working. It's in my list of possible futures after PHNL but right now PHNL could be the last airport I ever do.

 

I would find it incredibly difficult to make buildings for KFCI. I started working on them but they are all too unique and complex to use default provided structures. I'll see about it. Don't count on anything.

Wtf? Why would I be trying to piss you off? You mentioned working on KFCI and since that is my local airport, I was wondering if you had completed it for XP.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[Colin S]

Wtf? Why would I be trying to piss you off? You mentioned working on KFCI and since that is my local airport, I was wondering if you had completed it for XP. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Ok sorry my bad - KFCI raised a lot of problems because of the fact that it was illegal (I don't hide that fact). I just thought you were trying to make me upload the original. Sorry about that

[Bobback]

I hate copyrights. You can use the maps in your PC using their software, you can use it on your phone, but you cannot use it on your flight sim.
Really hate this.

Anyway, i don't care, so.... Sorry to ask but is there a way to download G2XPL? To my understanding, it downloads images from Gmaps right? Im trying to build my first airport, but i live in Brazil, can't find good satellite (Geotiff) images, but Google Earth is very good for it.

I had a lot of scenery on FSX, all with images from GMaps, and actually flying VFR i miss them a lot. 

 

And before i forgot, one more incredible bad behaviour from mods on the ORG, worst site ever, most mods and the owner live on hard days, looks like they are angry every time, everything that was not written by one of them is wrong.
By the way, looking at your post, their message shows a strongly childsh behaviour and they are totally unprofessional. At least Laminar has nothing to do with that annoying dictator aspirant kids.

[BimmerCop]

I hate copyrights. You can use the maps in your PC using their software, you can use it on your phone, but you cannot use it on your flight sim.

Really hate this.

Anyway, i don't care, so.... Sorry to ask but is there a way to download G2XPL? To my understanding, it downloads images from Gmaps right? Im trying to build my first airport, but i live in Brazil, can't find good satellite (Geotiff) images, but Google Earth is very good for it.

I had a lot of scenery on FSX, all with images from GMaps, and actually flying VFR i miss them a lot. 

 

And before i forgot, one more incredible bad behaviour from mods on the ORG, worst site ever, most mods and the owner live on hard days, looks like they are angry every time, everything that was not written by one of them is wrong.

By the way, looking at your post, their message shows a strongly childsh behaviour and they are totally unprofessional. At least Laminar has nothing to do with that annoying dictator aspirant kids.

Are Bing maps available for your area? You can also set G2XPL up for using Bing instead of Gmaps. Works perfectly.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[Bobback]

Are Bing maps available for your area? You can also set G2XPL up for using Bing instead of Gmaps. Works perfectly. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Yes, just did a quick look and it shows the areas here, but whats the difference? Are Bing images free to use? No copyright issues?

Actually my problem is that i don't have G2XPL and don't know where to get it.

And i can't found good ortophotos of my country, the only good satellite images are these ones from Google/Yahoo/Bing. 

 

[Colin S]

Yes, just did a quick look and it shows the areas here, but whats the difference? Are Bing images free to use? No copyright issues?

Actually my problem is that i don't have G2XPL and don't know where to get it.

And i can't found good ortophotos of my country, the only good satellite images are these ones from Google/Yahoo/Bing. 

 

 

That's the biggest issue - Bing, Google, Yahoo... not free to use. Copyright. Read the terms of use. I wish they would remove this copyright, but for now, it's still there and stupid as ever.

[Colin S]

Are Bing maps available for your area? You can also set G2XPL up for using Bing instead of Gmaps. Works perfectly. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

They are also copyright.

[tkyler]

.....and since that is my local airport, I was wondering if you had completed it for XP.

Are you comfortable with working with WED by any chance?   If so, I might have a starting point for you.

 

TomK

[Bobback]

That's the biggest issue - Bing, Google, Yahoo... not free to use. Copyright. Read the terms of use. I wish they would remove this copyright, but for now, it's still there and stupid as ever.

 

Yeah, really hate this copyright issues. 

Well, but anyway can you please send it to me? Or is there a web site where i can get it? Haven't found it after a good search.

Actually that's whats killing XP10 to me. Im used to fly in FSX some VFR flights, and even when not VFR, i like when im close to the airport and see the city texture around the airport. It was very good in FSX, there was a lot of scenery for my country, a lot of cities with very good scenery, guess 99% of them were made using Google Maps, not sure if there wasn't corpyright issues or just people don't care, anyway all of them were free to download, many of them good quality addons.

This scenery creation in XP is killing my XP experience, while i want to completely move to XP10 i see that i always go back to FSX to fly the areas close to my home. Wed looks very good and easy to use, but since i can't find good satellite images from government websites the only maps i could use are the Yahoo/Bing/Google ones, but i can't find a way to get them to the Sim. Also tried GMaps for X-Plane, but haven't found a way to make it run on Windows.

 

If someone can help, please!