Now that the legal bru-ha-ha between StationStops and MTA has blown over, and MTA seems to be making significant gestures to opening up their data, I want to give a very special and overdue shout-out to some great people behind the scenes who supported StationStops.

First and foremost is the Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy Clinic headed by Professor Jonathan Askins, as well as professors Jason Mazzone and Derek Bambauer.

Shortly after my conflict with MTA began, I got in touch with Professor Mazzone regarding copyfraud - a term he had coined which I felt accurately represented the early disputes between StationStops and MTA. Mazzone referred me to the IP clinic, whom invited me to Brooklyn to present it to them.

A group of the students led by Erik Dykema took interest in my case, and started fervently researching the legal issues involved, preparing a list of legal contingencies for StationStops.

Thankfully, my conflict with MTA was resolved successfully. However, if necessary, BLIP was prepared to represent me as my lawyer in NY State court (and to be honest, they were a little bummed they didn’t get the opportunity .

In addition, student Liam Barber took the initiative to also attend evening meetings of the New York Data Transit Summit in Manhattan to further research other developers seeking resolution with MTA over data.

The information I received from these bright-eyed future lawyers was outstanding, and allowed me to negotiate with MTA on a very tricky legal subject with confidence and accuracy.

Its information that, from an experienced IP lawyer, would have cost thousands of dollars, but they did it pro bono. More importantly to me, because of the age of the students, they have grown up in a digital world, use MTA transit and mobile applications, and understand the implications and desirable outcome of open data on a personal level.

But they weren’t alone. 4 additional private lawyers, all of them top IP lawyers I could never possibly afford, also reviewed and advised on the legal issues surrounding my case at no cost. I want to thank them for their help as well, but will not name them here as I did not have a formal client relationship with them.

Having actual practicing lawyers chime in was extremely valuable, as they not only know the legal positions in the case, they know the likelihood of what happens in the real world when such cases go to court.

Also, a thanks to Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman for reviewing my case, offering EFF assistance, and sending it up for an excellent blog post by EFF Activism & Technology Manager Tim Jones.

Ron Coleman ( Twitter: @RonColeman )is a prominent NYC Intellectual Property attorney at Goetz Fitzpatrick LLP and author of the blog ‘LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®’. Ron did not support, represent, or advise me directly, but his expert criticism of MTA’s licensing practices were outstanding in helping me explain to people what was going on.

Overlawyered is also a great blog and Twitter citizen for coverage of cases like mine where things seem a bit, well, overlawyered. They have recognized my case in the past and I love reading their tweets of other cases that make me just smh.

I want to thank my own lawyer, Brian Rosenfeld of Stamford, for his extremely high level of personal integrity and responsiveness in my case. Brian always answered my calls, always answered my emails, made it clear the issues he wanted to defer to IP experts (and located them), and overall was very supportive and pro-active.

Finally, I want to thank the Mark Heavey at the Marketing Department at MTA for personally bringing this entire matter to a peaceful resolution.

The case is closed, the hatchet buried, and hopefully someday I will have a new relationship with MTA that will result in great new services for MTA passengers.

I post this list not just to thank these people, but to provide support and encouragement for developers and other individuals and small business who find themselves in legal conflicts whose traditional expense may seem out of reach. Stand up for yourself, pick up the phone, call lawyers and law schools, explain your situation to them and your resources, and get help. It is out there!

As Professor Mazzone explains, in the case of copyfraud especially, its is extremely common for small businesses to simply submit when a larger entity serves them with an erroneous cease and desist. I encourage others to not do this until they have been professionally advised by experts as to their exact legal position.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: StationStops Thanks Brooklyn Law IP Clinic, Others for Legal Support

This morning I received a call from Congressman Jim Himes’ office requesting I brief them on the status of MTA vs StationStops after I had brought their attention to the matter a few weeks ago.

The discussion was specifically focused on the inability for small businesses like myself and Joe Moore to ignore fraudulent IP C&D letters from litigious organizations such as MTA due to the increasing presence of online fulfillment houses like Apple, Zazzle, CafePress, etc, which largely fulfill any properly-formatted C&D without qualitative analysis or discussion with the artist, photographer, or developer.

Indeed, Apple to date has never responded to either my own or my lawyer’s written requests to discuss the cease and desist, and has never returned any calls to any of the press organizations which have contacted them for comment to the best of my knowledge.

I noted how MTA has deliberately and repeatedly exploited this loophole with other entities in order to enforce ownership of intellectual property it does not own – citing Joe Moore’s case as the the most egregious and disturbing.

This emerging problem shifts the burden of proof to the recipient, such as myself, and requires them to incur significant legal fees to even analyze the claim by professional IP counsel regardless of claim legitimacy.

The law is designed so that the recipient’s first protection from such litigation is to ignore it if it is without merit, forcing the claimant to file suit and prove the legitimacy of the claim.

The cost to StationStops in legal fees and lost sales in response to MTA’s C&D is approaching $3000, and this does not include a tremendous amount of Pro Bono work on the part of nearly a dozen lawyers, law professors, and law students who have expressed interest and offered assistance in my case.

It also does not include the hours I have personally put into grassroots action that I would have spent developing better mobile solutions for MTA passengers.

I am hoping Himes office will continue to consider research and legislation to include safeguards to protect small businesses such as those in place in the UK, where fraudulent IP C&D’s may be contested in court and ruled on as to their legitimacy before action is taken and damages are incurred (this is my understanding as an IP lawyer has explained to me).

I referred Hime’s office to Brooklyn Law Professor Jason Mazzone, who is at the forefront of research on this topic, for further study.

Jim Himes lives in my neighborhood, and I welcome him to stop by at any time to discuss the subject in detail.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Congressman Jim Hime’s Office Calls StationStops

MTA Licensing sent San Francisco T-Shirt designer Joe Moore a cease and desist, causing his T-Shirt to be removed from sale by Cafepress.com.

The reason: It infringed on MTA trademarks.

Problem is, the T-Shirt had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the NYC MTA or its trademarks – it was a shirt satirizing the San Francisco Muni System.

When SFWeekly picked up the story, they called MTA Spokesman Aaron Donovan for MTA’s side of the story:

“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,” he said. “The images on Mr. Moore’s blog did not appear to show anything that would represent a trademark violation against the New York MTA.”

There is a dark side to the SFWeekly story though – SFMTA Spokeman expressed an interest in SFMTA pursuing its own licensing program.

My advice to the bay area: Look at MTA’s behavior, and do not let SFMTA do this under any circumstances.

Read more at SFWeekly and Moore’s blog, 40withegg.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: MTA Backpedals On Case Against San Francisco T-Shirt Designer

When The Stamford Advocate asked MTA for a quote on the matter, they backpedaled completely:

“Schoenfeld said Freundlich also told him that the stationstops.com site may infringe the MTA’s copyright, but (MTA Spokesman) Ortiz said the MTA has no issue with the site.”

Now, the same thing has happened to Joe Moore, a T-Shirt designer in San Francisco. Joe made a T-Shirt satirizing San Francisco’s MUNI system – but it was the same NY MTA lawyer who sent a cease and desist to Moore insisting the T-Shirt infringed on MTA’s Intellectual Property.

This week when SFWeekly called MTA for comment, MTA Spokesman Aaron Donovan stated:

“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,” he said. “The images on Mr. Moore’s blog did not appear to show anything that would represent a trademark violation against the New York MTA.”

MTA – it is your LEGAL DEPARTMENTS RESPONSIBILITY to ‘LOOK INTO THE DETAILS’ BEFORE THEY SEND CEASE AND DESISTS TO SMALL BUSINESSES.

It is completely unacceptable for MTA legal to be making unsubstantiated IP claims against individuals and small business without due diligence, and then just shrugging your shoulders when you get called on it.

THAT IS COPYFRAUD.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: The MTA Licensing SOP: Legal Commits Copyfraud, Spokesmen Retract When Press Calls

We are collecting these anecdotes for public awareness, so if you have one, please send me the info here. (PS I already know about ‘Stop’ Bagels!)

This guy, Joe, who lives in SAN FRANCISCO, made a T-shirt which parodied SAN FRANCISCO public transit’s ‘N’ line, which was underserviced and overcrowded. He used imagery from SAN FRANCISCO’s transit system and added another T-Shirt with more lines.

Guess who sent him a cease and desist?

The New York MTA of course!

Now, why is the New York MTA concerned about a shirt which parodies a transit system on the OTHER SIDE OF THE COUNTRY and uses that transit systems imagery?

Because, you see, letters with colored circles around them are the intellectual property of the MTA!

I choose to select this case to highlight first, because it really is the most absurd and inappropriate abuse by MTA’s lawyers to date (that I know of anyway).

What’s really sad is that NONE of the letter/color combinations match any existing MTA subway line (the J line color is *close*, but tan, not brown).

As is usually the case in Copyfraud, Joe took his T-Shirt and went home because the complexity and costs of defending oneself against intellectual property claims by the pargest public transportation system in the US is not within the scope of normal persons ‘todo’ list.

Now if Joe was selling his shirt directly, he could simply ignore the claim and MTA would have to bring him to court to make their case (which they would likely never do, because its BS). However, since there is a go-between which will passively acknowledge copyright claims (in this case, Cafepress), the MTA can use them to enforce their takedown without it EVERY being proved in court!

This is the same case with Apple and StationStops. I refuted all of MTA’s claims and refused to remove my app from the app store. However, MTA sent Apple a C&D as well, and Apple just honored it by taking the app out of the store without conversation with me regarding the legitimacy of the matter.

This is how fulfillment houses have become the new enforcer of copyfraud in the US.

US copyright law was never designed to work this way – the onus is supposed to be on the claimant to make his case – but with companies like Apple and Cafepress taking action on say-so, the system no longer protects legitimate businesses.

Not only is this copyright claim likely groundless, but much worse, MTA actually spent its time shutting down someone who was satirically (also likely protected speech) criticizing a public transit system on the OTHER SIDE OF THE COUNTRY, using symbols from that transit system which MTA insists it ‘owns’.

Its gratuitous and inappropriate corporate behavior.

The purpose of copyright law is to protect your intellectual property from being used in ways that directly affect your ability to do business. Its not designed so that you can seek to frivolously profiteer from the licensing of letters and colors when used in contexts which are COMPLETELY unrelated to your company.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: MTA Cyberfraud: The Most Gratuitous Case Yet [SF Parody T-Shirt]

I have spoken in person to both Governor Jodi Rell and Governor David Paterson’s press offices requesting a statement, but have received no call back from either office.

I have sent various emails to Mayor Bloomberg’s office, and have encouraged reporters covering the story to request a statement from his office with no results.

Let’s be clear: MTA has little effective oversight – when the MTA misbehaves it is up to the elected officials which hold its leash to speak out and get them in line.

I look forward to contact from these local officials, whose offices can contact me immediately here.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Paterson, Governor Rell – Where Are You?

StationStops for iPhone has never under any circumstances claimed any affiliation or relationship to MTA or Metro-North whatsoever, has always used self-sourced schedule data which is not copyrightable by anyone, public or private, and properly disclaimed the app as ‘Not Affiliated With MTA’, since the day it went on sale.

The MTA, outrageously, has simply asserted the exact opposite in its cease and desist:

“The Application infringes on MTA’s statuatory and common law intellectual property rights and is inaccurate, false, and misleading with respect to content pertaining to MTA and MN”

This Application expressly and implicitly falsely purports that MN is the source for the information in the Application and the Application is endorsed by and associated with MN and MTA under an initial and ongoing relationship, and that its content has been supplied and approved by MN’

Absolutely none of this is true whatsover.

It is Copyfraud.

Apple has complied with the MTA’s takedown request despite written refusal of all claims by StationStops, without responding to a request for conversation with StationStops whatsoever except for notices.

StationStops will continue to fight to return to the iTunes App Store, and will continue its legal, media, and political campaigns to force MTA to release its schedule data freely to developers, as 40 other transit authorities in the US have done.

StationStops actively pursued a formal licensing agreement with MTA for 9 months in exchange for developer-friendly data services.

During that 9 month period, MTA Marketing did not request any changes which needed to be made to StationStops for iPhone – until StationStops asked for changes to the licensing contract MTA proposed in June.

When StationStops requested a more reasonable royalty schedule and good faith promises of schedule updates from MTA, MTA accused both the StationStops blog and StationStops for iPhone as infringing on MTA copyrights and immediately sent cease and desist letters to StationStops and Apple.

StationStops refutes ALL copyright infringement claims from MTA, and even has MTA-documented history of being cooperative and compliant in listening to MTA’s concerns in the past in good faith.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Apple Removes StationStops from iTunes App Store