Repository navigation
spreadsimple.com #345
Description
Is it maybe reported already?
- I have searched the existing issues, it is not reported already
Before you submit this form, please ensure the following criteria are met:
- The website/app in question uses map tiles hosted by the OpenStreetMap foundation (https://tile.openstreetmap.org).
- The website/app does not have proper attribution. (https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Licence/Attribution_Guidelines)
- The usage of the tiles is non-trivial. (Not a development site, not test code, not a personal project with negligible traffic, etc.)
- You have contacted the website/app owner or representative using the Love Letter model/template (https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Licence/Attribution_Reminder_Templates) more than a week ago and no proper attribution has been added.
- Or you have made a good faith effort to find working contact information for the website/app owner or representative but were unable to find a means to contact them.
Date when the message was send (has it happened more than a week ago?):
2026 Jan 14 and 2026 Jul 1
Where did you send it?
Please paste the content of the Love Letter you sent to the map user here.
Hi,
This is a kind reminder of the mail below.
We have noticed that several of the websites that use your platform use OpenStreetMap tiles and do not credit the source. We stumbled upon bankautomaten.be , but we see the error stems from your own templates:
https://spreadsimple.com/template-preview/dental-clinics/
https://spreadsimple.com/template-preview/aircc/
While OpenStreetMap is explicitly meant for re-use, it is essential that you attribute the source. Not just because it is legally required by the OpenStreetMap Foundation, but also because OpenStreetMap uses third party resources that themselves require attribution. You can easily solve this by adding the default copyright mention that is even included in all the Leaflet code examples.
You are using the community tiles, which are not meant for commercial use (though it is not strictly forbidden). They are in fact not great for you, as they highlight errors and vandalism - this can be avoided by using commercial (e.g. MapBox, MapTiler) or free sources (e.g. OpenFreeMap).
Since you did not respond to our previous mail, this is a final reminder before we take steps to block your website and any users of your platform that lack attribution. We'd hate to break Kristof's project, but we can't allow you to keep breaking the law. Especially when the fix will just take a few minutes of your time. As I posted below, the issue seems to be just a minor bug in your code.
All the best,
Joost Schouppe
member at OpenStreetMap.be
Op wo 14 jan 2026 om 14:05 schreef joost schouppe joost.schouppe@gmail.com:
Hi,
The makers of one of the sites you showcase on your page, bankautomaten.be , claim they have no control over the content of their website.
The issue at hand is that their site uses OpenStreetMap tiles (kindly donated to them by the OpenStreetMap Foundation), but the legally obliged copyright notice is missing. After a quick glance at the code, there appears to be a bug, because I can see the "leaflet-control-attribution leaflet-control" element which contains the required text. But the text is not rendered.
Could you (help your user to) fix this for this site and any other sites that use OpenStreetMap maps?
More details about the required copyright notice is at - https://openstreetmap.org/copyright
In short: we can only give you free maps because we have volunteers (and donations for tile servers that aren't really intended for third party websites, but OK), and we only have volunteers because people discover that we exist by using maps - for example via your site.
All the best,
Joost Schouppe
for OpenStreetMap Belgium vzw
The infringement is a:
- website
- app or other
Please drag and drop or attach the screenshot showing the map without proper attribution here.
No response
Where it is happening?
https://spreadsimple.com/template-preview/dental-clinics/
Previous Reports:
No response
Activity
[-]https://spreadsimple.com/[/-][+]spreadsimple.com[/+]matkoniecz commentedon Aug 28, 2026
feel free to notify them and report them here
or share links, then I will add them to my queue
matkoniecz commentedon Aug 28, 2026
(is it result of SOTM talk?)
joostschouppe commentedon Aug 28, 2026
I don't recall other cases, but it started off by noticing the bankautomaten.be website. Here's the message I sent them:
Ik kan dit niet wijzigen, plugin/website wordt gemaakt door spreadsimple. https://spreadsimple.com/
Ik stel voor dat u hen vraagt om het nodige te doen.
We zijn trouwens nog steeds op zoek naar een sponsor voor onze webste :-)
Zo kunnen jullie nog meer reclame maken voor jullie product
Mvg,
kristof
Tekst uit oorspronkelijk bericht niet weergeven
Op 14 jan 2026, om 11:13 heeft joost het volgende geschreven:
Beste,
Op uw website bankautomaten.be maakt u gebruik van OpenStreetMap als achtergrondkaart. Het deed ons plezier dat te zien, aangezien we een open project zijn dat gebruik van onze data expliciet aanmoedigt.
Maar het is wel verplicht om een eenvoudige verwijzing naar ons project op te nemen, bijvoorbeeld: "© OpenStreetMap-bijdragers. Zie openstreetmap.org/copyright." (het woord OpenStreetMap aanklikbaar maken is zeker OK). Meer informatie hierover kunt u zelf ook op https://openstreetmap.org/copyright vinden. In Leaflet staat dit in alle voorbeelden in de documentatie ook zo opgenomen.
We vragen u de copyrightvermelding in orde te brengen. Immers voldoen wij als OpenStreetMap zélf ook niet aan onze copyrightverplichtingen ten opzichte van onze dataleveranciers zolang u dit niet aanpast.
(It was on my mental todo list for a while, your talk triggered the taking action)
joostschouppe commentedon Sep 4, 2026
The website bankautomaten.be has now been fixed. They always claimed they had no control over the content of their page, but finally did say:
So the issue can be fixed on all the websites that use their template by a simple CSS change; but an individual website can overrule it with a simple extra CSS line.
matkoniecz commentedon Sep 4, 2026
seems still unfixed at https://spreadsimple.com/template-preview/dental-clinics/ and https://dental-clinics-directory.spread.name/ (the second one likely needs to be blocked for blocks to apply properly)
joostschouppe commentedon Sep 4, 2026
Yes, it's just the one client of theirs that was my initial contact that has fixed it on their end.
joostschouppe commentedon Sep 4, 2026
Fixed on their page, they switched to OpenFreeMap as well. (I did ask them to attribute OFM as well :))
For some reason, I thought I'd contact them via LinkedIn and that immediately triggered a response. I've asked if my mails got lost in the past.
matkoniecz commentedon Sep 4, 2026
I wonder whether #348 triggering block convinced them
alex-devstark commentedon Sep 7, 2026
Hello @joostschouppe ,
This is Alex from SpreadSimple, and I'd like to provide an update on the issue.
First of all, we're sorry that your initial email was missed in our inbox. Apologies for that. In case you need to reach us in the future, the fastest way is to contact us via the chat on our website. Our support team monitors the chat and can respond much more quickly.
In any case, we're very grateful for your notification. As you may have already noticed, we've fixed the issue with the incorrect map tile source and are now using OpenFreeMap, as you suggested. We've also updated the attribution to include OpenFreeMap.
The fix has already been deployed to production, so it applies to all websites built with SpreadSimple, as well as all our templates.
I hope this resolves the issue.
Thank you again for bringing this to our attention, and please feel free to contact us if you notice any other issues.
Have a great day!
Alex