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

In the letter, Brewer suggests that MTA operational data be “wholly in the public domain”, available online, using standard data transit protocols provided by Google, and be kept updated.

MTA’s current data policy involves a $5000 licensing agreement, 10% of royalties on developer app sales, delivery of transit data via cumbersome CD-ROM format, and lacks a willingness to provide accurate and timely updates to schedule data.

Furthermore, when developers such as myself have approached MTA for negotiation on these terms, MTA marketing was completely unwilling to negotiate and immediately resorted to legal threats including the takedown of both my blog and iPhone application.

Brewer’s views are shared by StationStops.com and the Councilwoman has our full support.

Councilwoman Brewer joins The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Gov 2.0 Spokesman Tim O’Reilly, NYC IP Attorney Ron Coleman, and Stamford Advocate Opinion Editor Thomas Mellana in it’s opposition to MTA’s licensing policies regarding schedule data, and in the latter four cases, MTA’s actions against StationStops specifically.

I have forwarded this information to my contacts at MTA Marketing and Legal, and once again requested that they retract the cease and desists to StationStops and Apple as a first step in developing a data transit policy which is in line with public opinion and seeks meaningful cooperation with developers.

The question remains – exactly how much public opposition to MTA’s behavior is necessary for MTA to react to public concern and take positive and meaningful action?

My latest request to MTA Marketing for an update on MTA’s willingness to make changes to its data licensing policies went unanswered.

MTA Open Data Letter 09-08-2009

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: City Council To MTA CEO: “(MTA) Operational Data Should Be Wholly In The Public Domain”

Check it out!

Some people might ask me – Chris, you have your web Metro-North Schedules, and your own Metro-North Scheduling app – why draw attention to competition?

Well, because most of us mobile developers don’t think in those terms – that’s MTA-think.

In the past month I have had conversations with many public transit mobile developers, I share my information, ideas, and discussions with MTA with them, and them with me.

Most of us never expect to ‘get rich’ off of our transit schedules. Many of us are just passenger/developers who were like ‘for christ’s sakes, it would be so easy to make an app that would make reading the schedule 100X easier – WHY has MTA not done this?’ – and did it ourselves for our own use.

Most of us would like nothing more than for MTA to make the data for FREE ONLINE, so that ANYONE can make Metro-North apps and the market could be flooded with great ideas and competition that create truly amazing ones.

Nice work Tom!

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: BetterMetroNorth.com Offer Slick Online Metro-North Schedules