StationStops welcomes public awareness of MTA’s actions through the media and can be contacted here to answer questions on the latest status.

Thanks to the Associated Press’s distribution of Martin Cassidy’s followup story in the Stamford Advocate, newspaper, radio, and TV coverage of the MTA vs StationStops legal battle has easily doubled since two week ago, and continues.

You really have to wonder about the MTA holding out for $170 while they get their bad press doubled in the same time frame – they obviously have no concerns whatsoever about the public response to their actions and collecting more and more negative press. That’s their choice, but a puzzling one.

I can’t help but wonder – who at MTA is sitting around making the political decision – “yeah, lets see how far we can stretch this out and how much bad press we can get before we put a bow on it”

New York Future Initiative
Web Developers Mobilize around MTA iPhone App Controversy

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Second Avenue Sagas
MTA struggling in an age of open information

On August 31, Apple removed the application from its store. The MTA alleged that the application “infringes on MTA’s statutory and common law intellectual property rights” and purported to represent the authority. None of those claims are true as I understand the facts of this case and legal precedent.

While the application remains unavailable, Schoenfeld has received support from legal organizations and local politicians. The EFF has, obviously, come out in support of Schoenfeld. City Council member Gail Brewer, in a letter that bashes the MTA’s current sub-par mobile offerings, calls upon the authority to make its data open for all developers.

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CBS Radio via WTIC Interview
This story aired on multiple broadcasts starting Sept 7th.

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NPR via Sept 7 WFUV Interview with reporter Ellen Burke
This story on multiple broadcasts starting Sept 7th

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Connecticut Law Tribune
An Idea That Got Stopped In Its Tracks

The web version of my interview with Tribune reporter Doug Malan is behind a paywall. I have contacted the Tribune to ask if I could reproduce a portion of it for you.

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Electronic Frontier Foundation
Who Controls Data About Public Transportation?

NYMTA’s extortionate actions censored a helpful and perfectly legal use of their data. The results have been bad for their reputation and bad for their passengers. Connecticut’s Stamford Advocate put it well: the MTA “should just leave (Schoenfeld) alone and let him make an honest buck by providing a useful service.”

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LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®
MTA’s way or the highway

Merits are irrelevant when there is no down side to litigating; all the more so when, to the contrary, someone’s job or department or seniority depends on finding things, no matter how idiotic, to justify his existence.

That looks a lot like what’s going on here. See, there’s nothing private parties can do in business and law that the government can’t do worse!

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Associated Press via Greenwich Time/Advocate (Martin Cassidy’s Follow-up story)
MTA derails iPhone application

Note: As the Associated Press picked up Cassidy’s story, this was by far the biggest press exposure the story has gotten to date. At least 15 newspapers ran the story online that I can Google, and many more on TV and radio, most which I obviously cannot link to. -SS

“All the application developers will worry if the MTA will come after them next and sue them for royalties,” Schoenfeld said. “The question remains whether the MTA is seeking to engage developers into licensing contracts or trying to scare them out of developing MTA apps.”

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Techcrunch
Gov 2.0: It’s All About The Platform

…the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority issued a takedown order against the StationStops iPhone application. This is exactly the kind of bad policy that we hope to remedy by shedding light on best practices in government platform building.

-Guest blogger Tim O’Reilly

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SFWeekly
NYC’s Metropolitian Transporation Authority Threatens Man Marketing S.F. Muni T-Shirts

in a recent phone interview, a spokesman for the agency, Aaron Donovan, seemed to backtrack: “We have no claim on Muni’s icons, we would need to look into the specifics of this case in greater detail to determine why the letter may have been sent,”

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The New York Post
MTA Demands Its Piece Of The Piephone

Commenter georgesinc: “The train schedule is a public property and, of course, a public record. isn’t the info available on a web page for free? what’s wrong with selling an app that people have the option to buy as long as it has a disclaimer.”

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The New York Times Online via ReadWriteWeb
NY Transportation Authority Cites Schedules as Copyrighted Material

“Judging by StationStop sales and the public outcry for Schoenfeld, customers want a better way to access their transportation information and they don’t care whether it’s city-run, state-run or citizen-driven.”

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amNY
MTA looks for a cut from mobile phone applications

Nearly 40 transit agencies in the U.S.- including the systems in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Boston – have released the information for developers to freely use through a Google transit feed. Many of the agencies argue that it drives ridership and relieves them of the burden of creating on-line applications.

“Why isn’t that train data available? The public needs this”

-City Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) Technology Aide Samuel Wong

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Slashdot
New York MTA Asserts Copyright Over Schedule

(Note: Because of the popularity of Slashdot, traffic spiked enormously – make sure you read the over 345 COMMENTS!)

“Now the MTA is insisting he pay them to license the data, and at one point even accused the site of pretending to be an official MTA site.’ I can’t believe that this the MTA’s actions are going to go over well with the public.”

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CNet
Who Owns Transit Data?

“In local blogs and on transit sites, outrage over agencies and companies that claim ownership of the data is growing. The core argument against locking down such data is that it’s collected by or paid for by public, taxpayer-funded agencies and thus should be open to all citizens, and that schedule data by itself is not protectable content.”

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The Stamford Advocate
Blogger, MTA clash over train schedules on iPhone (Lead story!)

“There is a very good chance that what he is copying is not copyrightable…There is also the argument that the MTA is a semipublic entity and that there should be no copyright on the schedule information they provide.”

-Quinnipiac University School of Law professor John Morgan

“He is just finding a way to aggregate data that is already listed on the MTA Web site and share it with commuters … I think he has developed a great idea. More information for commuters is better. If the MTA is going to offer a similar service, that would be good, too. But, in the meantime, if someone else has taken the initiative, they shouldn’t crack down on him.”

-Jim Cameron of The Connecticut Rail Commuter Council

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Stamford Advocate (Editorial)
MTA should lose copyright claim

“The entrepreneur says it would be oppressive to cough up that ($5000) sum up front, although he appears willing to agree to the 10 percent. The authority should go for it. Or, better yet, it should just leave him alone and let him make an honest buck by providing a useful service.”

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Techdirt
NY MTA The Latest Public Transportation Group To Declare It Owns Facts

“It’s difficult to see how the MTA has much of a legal leg to stand on here, but they don’t seem to have a problem being a bully against a developer who’s actually helping riders have a better experience.”

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WTNH-TV Channel 8
MTA Blogger Defends iPhone App

“Perhaps instead of spending time and money on lawyers to harass you, they should be spending time and money on things to make their customers happy. Things that make customers happy include better service, less crowded trains, more reliable service, and ease of acquiring schedules.”

-Commenter Patrick

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Gadget Nomad
New York MTA: Railroad Schedules are Copyrighted

“When a company fights against common sense, money’s probably involved—or at least the impression that money can be made.”

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Mediapost
Who Owns The Train Schedule?

“One would think the Metropolitan Transportation Authority would want commuters to be able to access schedule information from a variety of sources. One would be wrong.”

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Gadgetseria
Entitlement and greed in the digital age never cease to amaze me…

“Again, instead of actually adapting to new technologies themselves and bringing some revolutionary application or service to the public, they’re (MTA) choosing to keep innovative and quite useful services from coming forward. Sadly, we yet again see another abuse and misinterpretation of the digital cancer that is the DMCA.”

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The Business Insider
MTA Says iPhone App Maker Can’t Use Train Schedules Without Permission

Dz Comments: “Glad this is finally being brought out. MTA is completely backwards with regards to mobile schedules. Hopefully this will end in favor of the riders”

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Greater Greater Washington
New York MTA threatens blogger, asserts copyright over schedule

“The MTA is blundering about and getting all this bad press because they look at the world in terms of deals, and figure that this thing going on pertaining to them ought to fit into that world. Unfortunately for them, data itself isn’t copyrightable, and as various experts tell the Stamford Advocate, most likely the MTA has no legal basis to stop the application.”

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The Village Voice
iPhone App-Maker Publishes Train Schedules; MTA Demands a Cut

“It’s 83 degrees in New York right now. We wonder if we owe Apple any money.”

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Greenwich Roundup
Greenwich Roundup – Your Tax Dollars At Work: Failed Metro North Executives Must Be On Drugs

“Would Someone Please Tell Failed MTA Metro-North President Howard Permut That…The MTA Timetable Is Public Information That Is Funded By The Taxpayers Of CT And NY…Ridiculous copyright policies strike again…”

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WTIC-1080
Blogger Vs. MTA: Are Train Schedules Intellectual Property?

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GoV-log
Are Train and Bus Schedules Copyrighted?

“The story has been picked up by the New York Times and is sure to receive further attention as the question of whether such data is or can be copyrighted is debated. Perhaps the bigger issue here is that if a third-party is doing a public service, and doing it well, should a government agency even pursue a copyright infringement claim, even if it is warranted?”

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Connecticut News Channel 12
StationStops vs MTA

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