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The code used by the fork was never published. It was stolen from a private repository and a private server, and then published/used in the fork without the authors' approval. That's a serious legal issue.

The fork also took the new website design that was developed for Organic Maps even before the Organic Maps website was updated.

Don't believe everything on the internet; there are many lies spread around.


Hmm... This says otherwise, with detailed explanations and screenshots: [1][2]

It shows that you, biodranik, removed the MIT licence from the repo with a commit saying "No MIT yet, sorry". It says that the code had been licenced as MIT since 2021. It is not clear if you own the copyright to all the contributions since 2021, and therefore it is not clear if you are legally allowed to remove the MIT licence.

It also says that the fork was made from the repo in the state it was when you removed the MIT licence. Therefore it is a fork of an MIT project by someone who had legal access to the MIT-licenced code: it's legal.

> Don't believe everything on the internet; there are many lies spread around.

You don't say :-).

I was not entirely sure about the CoMaps vs Organic Maps situation, but this very comment of yours clearly favours CoMaps IMO. Or did I misunderstand something?

[1]: https://github.com/orgs/organicmaps/discussions/9837

[2]: https://web.archive.org/web/20250815050441/https://github.co...


So Organic Maps is not actually open-source?


No, you got it wrong.

Roman supported the private repo and was aware of the temporary (last 3 days only) CF logs to address CDN abuse. However, several hours ago, he (or someone else using his account?) unexpectedly made the repository public without discussing it with the project's maintainers. As a result, his account rights were temporarily restricted to clarify the situation.

There is still no response from Roman regarding his motivation for ignoring the usual governing board rules. Previously, all similar important project decisions were always discussed with maintainers/active contributors before being executed.

I hope that we resolve this strange situation successfully soon.


Removing the MIT license from the repository and claiming it as 'my code' is not how open source works.


It's sound like the person who removed the licence also originally wrote the code, and just didn't intend to add the MIT licence to it?


Nope, Roman has actively contributed to this MIT-licensed code since its inception in 2021.


Yeah I mean, of course technically that's not how it's supposed to be done, but if they initially added the code and the licence (the latter by mistake), then I can see how the internal narrative is "here's my code (that Roman has contributed to) and I accidentally added the licence to it - oops, let me remove that before we accidentally make it public".

Of course at that point they should have realised that they weren't the only author of the code any more and that Roman understandably would have the wrong idea. But I see how it's an easy mistake to make, and it would probably also have easily been resolved had Roman reached out about it, rather than just instantly making it public and implying nefarious behaviour ("quietly made a change...discovered by me").


Though luck. Be more careful next time. That's how licences work (not only open source ones, or software ones).


As you seem to be Alexander Borsuk...

Why the removal of the MIT license?

Was that decision put to a vote like "all important project decisions" are? I assume it can't have been unless Roman is blatantly lying about only noticing it a few days later.


How come the server code was (is?) de-facto closed source and this fact was kept hidden?

In a project that claims to be open-source, privacy-focused and community-driven.


This wasn't a review process for a new update. The already approved app version was unexpectedly removed without any warnings.


As a temporary workaround for the Google Play issue, you can install the new upcoming Google Play update from this link: https://cdn.organicmaps.app/apk/OrganicMaps-24081605-GoogleP...


Just to clarify, is this Google Play update "upcoming" in that it is currently going through Google's policy review process in order to reinstate your app on Google Play? If so, what changes were made in this release to satisfy their policies?

I'm interested to see what technical hoops you're jumping through to get your app reinstated, if you don't mind sharing. As a developer myself I've had my "fun" with policy compliance and review processes. All the best either way, hope it gets reinstated soon!


There was a new release due on Google Play and App Store, I am not certainly sure but the removal was unrelated.


We pay it out of pocket or from users' donations.


Please make sure that you have up-to-date app and maps data, and tell us where you see cross-border routing issues. There's an easy way to report it from the app using "Report a bug" button in the About dialog.


IIRC, that was over a year ago near Oberstdorf, at the border between Austria and Germany. You could not get an on-foot route from the Kanzelwand Bergstation[1] to Fellhorn[2]. The hiking path follows the border closely, crossing it multiple times. That location seems to work fine now.

I’ll make sure to report it in the future!

[1]: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/252814925 [2]: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/276271393


I remember hearing about issues like this and I agree things are probably better lately after some fixes.


Can you please send us more details about non-working search queries at support [at] organicmaps.app (or report it on our Github), considering that addresses or POIs that you're searching for are _present_ on osm.org ?



Thanks, will do!


Please write us more details about search issues at support [at] organicmaps.app, or even better, create/update an issue on our Github: https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/issues

If trails have names in osm.org but names are not present in OM, please let us know, it's a bug.


Will do! I am pretty sure the trails where I hike (mostly Andorra) are just not named is OSM. I thought about trying to update some myself, but there's a lot of overlapping trails, so it would be tough to get right. For example big stretches of the same trail might be both GR-7 and GR-11 and also a local Andorran trail number. I'd rather not do it than do it and get it wrong!


OSM Public Transport schemes support for buses and trams is not implemented yet, and it's not an easy task. Any volunteers to lead the development are welcome!

Here is the entry point to the current subways validator with wiki links at the bottom: https://cdn.organicmaps.app/subway/


Is there any corporate funding for this work?


The original subway validator was created by the original (before the second sale) maps.me team. Now it is supported voluntarily.


We're actively improving our search in every release. Stay tuned!


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