codema.in

CoMaps should render legal Indian boundaries for Indian users

RD Ravi Dwivedi Thu 25 Dec 2025 3:05PM Public Seen by 57

A few hours ago, @fugata created an issue in the CoMaps repository at https://codeberg.org/comaps/comaps/issues/2964. The issue was to make CoMaps legal in India. Currently, Organic Maps, CoMaps, and OsmAnd are likely illegal to be distributed in India because they show "neutral" maps of India. In order to be legal in India, they need to render all the Jammu and Kashmir region inside India for users in India. @fugata has suggested what should CoMaps do in that thread.

CoMaps closed the issue, citing lack of governance model on their behalf. Therefore, I believe we should fix this issue and collaborate with OSM India. It is important for us at FSCI because OpenStreetMap gives us freedom and a lot of our community members rely on OpenStreetMap for their daily needs and also contribute data to it.

PP

Pirate Praveen Thu 25 Dec 2025 3:31PM

comaps recently added support for adding other download servers. So we can generate the alternative map and offer to download it. Later we can try to integrate the option in comaps directly.

P

perry Thu 25 Dec 2025 4:52PM

This sounds like we are complying in advance and modifying the map to please the establishment. OSM Wiki clearly states "OpenStreetMap maps the world as it exists, and that includes mapping borders and countries according to the actual current situation and not a preferred or ideal situation".

PP

Pirate Praveen Thu 25 Dec 2025 6:38PM

@perry legal risks could be enough deterrent for people to avoid using these apps. I don't know how realistic the fear is though.

Would you rather have many people avoid OSM due to this than provide an option for it?

Is ignoring conflicts a core mission of OSM? Does different borders severely limit these apps?

LIT

Life is Tetris Tue 6 Jan 2026 2:53AM

That sounds similar to tax evasion using high tax rates as the justification.

If the stand is to reflect ground reality, it would involve establishing which parts are not in Indian control and marking them as such. If that is too much for a volunteer project, it makes sense to show the official boundary but no roads etc. until establishing the out-of-control parts.

RD

Ravi Dwivedi Thu 8 Jan 2026 12:34PM

@perry "Complying in advance" means complying with something (such as an action or a law) before the action has been taken, or before the law was created.

Quoting the link you shared:

Obeying in advance means changing policies or curtailing advocacy, moving away from the full force of your mission, in advance of anyone ordering you to do so—in anticipation that something bad might happen. From there, people in authority learn what they can get away with.

However, in our case, we are trying to follow the already established law in India where we need to show all the Kashmir region within India. It is complying with the law, not in advance.

F

fugata Wed 31 Dec 2025 3:55AM

Thanks for raising this issue with FSCI. The Codeberg issue has since been reopened.

Some suggestions made by the developers need feedback from a lawyer. That will inform our course of action.

The attitude of most of the developers still seems negative to me, so if they decline to implement/merge whatever solution ends up being required, we could look into making a fork and releasing it on the Play Store, App Store, and F-Droid.