Dear visitor,

During the past few years several people copied my material from my web pages without any credit. Some people were decent to add my name after I had contacted them, but a few never had the decency to answer my requests and to add my name as copyright holder as a caption to my illustrations that they used in their own web pages.

A few years ago Tim McGuiness copied much of my material about the petroglyphs in the Pisco Valley and the Palpa Valley, both in Peru, without any credit. I emailed him about this matter and kindly asked him to add my name to every individual illustration that was my copyright, which he at long last did.

In January 2011 I found out that gain that Tim McGuiness had done the same with my Toro Muerto material. No less than 34 photos prove to be my copyright and none had my name in a caption. I emailed him again and kindly asked him to follow the same procedure and add my name as a caption at each photo. He answered me that this would take some time due to re-organisation of the web site.

In June I also found out that he has completely copied web pages of me and I mean literally completely. Only the URLs were adapted to fit his web site (see the URLs below). I was shocked to see this violation of copyright. Therefore I emailed him and this time I demanded to remove all my photographs and my information from his web site. I got the same reaction: ‘re-design’, but he also stated that ‘we are a US Based company, and are in FULL compliance with U.S. copyright law’.

The last time I checked his web page all my photos still showed on his web pages and at his Toro Muerto page there only was a ‘hidden’ reference to me at the very bottom of the page: ‘some images courtesy of Maarten van Hoek’. I find this ‘hidden’ reference unacceptable and insulting. First of all, there no question of ‘courtesy’ as McGuiness did no longer have my permission to copy my material. Secondly, there is no question of ‘some’ images as it concerns 34 Toro Muerto photos of mine. Thirdly, I would only accept a caption with my name as a caption to each individual photo of mine, IF he still had my permission. Fourthly, there is not question of ‘complying with the law’, but a matter of indeed courtesy and decency. But I am afraid that McGuiness does not grasp those two concepts. Either McGuiness is consistent in his use of copyright material, or he refrains from using my and other people’s material.

It proves that Tim McGuiness is presenting a web site about the Nasca Mysteries making it more interesting by copying (and without having permission I regard this as stealing) information painstakingly gathered by other people. I doubt if he has ever visited all those rock art sites.

Because of people like Tim McGuiness I have decided to remove all my good quality photos of the rock art sites that I have surveyed in the Andes.

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