New York MTA Asserts Copyright Over Schedule

Presto Vivace writes "Greater Greater Washington reports that 'The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority's lawyers are going after a local blogger, and attempting to block an iPhone application showing Metro-North railroad schedules. The blog StationStops writes about Metro-North Commuter Railroad service north of New York City, and often criticizes its operations. Its creator, Chris Schoenfeld, also created an iPhone application to give Metro-North riders schedule information. 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."

Comments

Re:Sure they have a copyright...

[gnupun]

I hope he can fight this, perhaps the EFF will step in on his behalf.

Why should the EFF defend scrapers? They are leeches. The author used MTA-created data, and unless it's in the public domain, he should have to pay MTA a portion of his earnings. The $5000 fee at the top is a bit steep though.

Re:This is will never fly in the courts

[mi]

There's no other way to get that many people all around NYC. Roads are congested as-is.

This is where one could say, once again, that government-run activities suck.

Watch, how pointing at this giant elephant in the room will sink this post's moderation into oblivion...

Re:This is will never fly in the courts

[commodore64_love]

>>>Seeing as the MTA is a public service, paid for by taxpayers, I don't think there is the same obligation to put up with obnoxious users

And this is why government-run programs suck. It's why Uncle Same Healthcare will suck. The employees inside these monopolies don't believe in customer service ("...under no obligation to put up with the users..."), and we the citizens get ignored, mistreated, et cetera.