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I am using "Locus Free" to access OSM Maps without problems, except the cyclemap. I get an "Access Denied" Error. Was this app blocked for tile download?

asked 11 May '11, 15:24

fdemmer's gravatar image

fdemmer
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Yes it was. Bulk downloading from the opencyclemap tileserver is not permitted as per the terms of use.

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answered 11 May '11, 15:58

Andy%20Allan's gravatar image

Andy Allan
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I have no idea about Locus Free, but this recent tweet by the author of OpenCycleMap and its associated link link text on his website, might be the root of the problem. This is NOT an OpenStreetMap issue, but rather one belonging to the author of Locus Free. I suggest you take it up with the appropriate people there.

Like Andy Allan, the OSM foundation has a tile usage policy for its tiles which is, unfortunately, frequently abused by creators of apps for smartphones.

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answered 11 May '11, 16:02

SK53's gravatar image

SK53 ♦
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1

Thank you for the replys. So I guess I will be going back to using a paper map. I have "donated" map content in the past, both general street map and cycleways in my area and cannot use that on my phone now, awesome!

Of course the policy makers can do as they please, but having such a anti-smartphone attitude these days will definitely not bring happy users/donators, which might be "an OpenStreetMap issue" after all...

(11 May '11, 21:10) fdemmer
1

you need to find a host server that as an android prebuilt map for download like the ones many of us have installed on our garmins if there's non available at the moment i'm sure in a short time there will be

(11 May '11, 21:23) andy mackey
1

I have explained that decisions about OpenCycleMap are entirely Andy Allan's own: it's his personal project, he devotes his free time to it. As such he is entitled to decide the terms under which people use it. Instead of being grateful for his generosity in providing this service, you choose to insult him. I think you owe him an apology.

There are PLENTY of Android apps which manage to work within the T&Cs set out for OpenCycleMap and the main OSM tiles.

(11 May '11, 22:37) SK53 ♦

We appreciate that you added data to the map and I hope that you had fun doing so. You (and everyone else) is free to use this data and all the data generated by other mappers in accordance with the open source license CC-BY-SA and we are very happy to see OpenStreetMap data and derivatives thereof in use. However this does not magically grant the private server of Andy Allan unlimited power to support massive scraping by badly written apps. Every app author is of course free to download our raw vector data and render them himself.

(12 May '11, 07:39) petschge
2

"Anti-smartphone attitude"? Nonsense.

Thousands of people are enjoying OSM on their smartphones using sensible, responsibly-written apps such as Trails, OffMaps and Skobbler.

If you had a web hosting account and put some large files on it; then someone, somewhere suddenly released an app into the Android Market which downloaded thousands of those files a second, without asking you; and the app was so popular that your web host sent you huge bills for the unexpected bandwidth... would you be happy? Didn't think so. That's exactly what's happening here.

(12 May '11, 09:12) Richard ♦

@SK53: please do not look for an insult between my lines, when there is none. i did not deny him the right to do whatever he likes with his service and definitely see no need to "get something back" from anyone for my minor input to the project. i am just pointing out my frustration, that there was no better solution than blocking access.

@SK53, @Richard: can you please name a "OSM approved" android app with offline maps?

(12 May '11, 19:12) fdemmer

I don't and won't use Android, so no, I can't. There's an Android page on the OSM wiki, I believe.

(12 May '11, 19:39) Richard ♦
showing 5 of 7 show 2 more comments

Don't blame OSM for this, the culprit is Locus' author. Copy-pasting my message to him (http://locus.asamm.cz/?p=302#comment-74):

You should also know that mass downloader apps have caused big problems with OSM tiles rendering and availability. Please read the following threads:

http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/dev/2011-May/022495.html

http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/dev/2011-May/022486.html

Before making any judgement about "anti-smartphone attitude" I think you should read these threads, too.

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answered 12 May '11, 06:45

Breki's gravatar image

Breki
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accept rate: 10%

thanks, the fact that some layers are only rendered on demand came as a surprise to me. knowing that makes the "load argument" weigh a lot more.

so i see there has been communication with the Locus developer... now that three important steps were made on his end (user agent, scraping limited to prerendered layers, attribution)... will OSM cycle be available again soon?

(locus, blog post: http://locus.asamm.cz/?p=400#more-400)

(12 May '11, 19:11) fdemmer

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question asked: 11 May '11, 15:24

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last updated: 12 May '11, 19:39

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum