Some clarification.

Yes, we are wrong because we used a picture without checking the
source/copyright. We just found it with Google and it was not coming
from the site of CDZ. Up till now we did not even found the picture
back on his website.

But the moment we found out that it was possibly a picture of CDZ we
tried to contact him and ask for permission and support. No reply.
A mail discussion started with somebody who claimed to talk in the name
of CDZ (even wrote: CDZ is standing right next to me at the moment) who
wrote (after some unpleasant mails), it is ok. During this conversation
we again tried to contact CDZ (email and phone) but no response.
Because the Lowlandscup is for fun and promotion of gliding and
strictly non profit we had no reason to believe that it would hurt CDZ,
or his business and that of course he would not have any objection in
using the picture. Boy, we were wrong!
We received a letter from his lawyer demanding to pay an amount of 1400
Euros for copyright infringement. Again we tried to reach Mr. Zink
(email, phone and 3 different faxnumbers) trying to settle this in a
mature way. The only response we received from him, via the lawyer, was
that we committed a crime and he doesn't want to deal with thieves.

The only option available to us was seek assistance in the
glidingcommunity. We are spending a lot of time making the Lowlandscup
work, and we get no money for it at all. We do not have the funds to
pay for the claim of CDZ.

The picture we used is already removed and replaced by a picture
offered by the German C-kader (German Juniors team).

I'm flying for more than 25 years, have participated in everything from
Juniors up till Worldchampionships. It was always a pleasure to meet
new people from all over the world, and we have made many new friends.
All these people shared the joy of soaring.
The words from the website of CDZ: 'Mit Freundlichem Fliegergruss'
(with friendly soaring greetings) seems to me not very well chosen. We
tried to correct our mistake, mr Zink only contacted his lawyer and
never contacted us.

Sorry Mr. Zink, this is not how we handle with issues in the
glidercommunity!
And I also rather not be called a thief anymore...

Ronald Termaat
XT