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Blogger, MTA clash over train schedules on iPhoneSTAMFORD, Aug 15, 2009 (The Stamford Advocate - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- A blogger and Internet developer from Greenwich who created an iPhone application that lists train and bus schedules is in a battle with the Metropolitan Transit Authority. The MTA wants to collect past and future licensing fees from profits the blogger earns from the application. The MTA said he needs its endorsement to distribute train schedules. "This is a case of them wanting to make me give up and take down my application and Web site," said the blogger, Chris Schoenfeld, founder of Station Stops. He received a cease and desist letter from MTA attorney Leon Freundlich last Friday to stop selling the software application he has offered since October, Schoenfeld said. For a Station Stops fee of $2.99, commuters can access MTA train and bus schedules with a few keystrokes, he said. Schoenfeld created stationstops.com three years ago to address service problems on Metro-North Railroad. It includes his posts about technology, entertainment and some local issues. The Aug. 7 letter from the MTA came after Schoenfeld delayed a licensing contract that would have given the authority 10 percent of his profits. The authority also wanted $5,000 in advance royalties on the timetables, which he thinks is unwarranted, Schoenfeld said. "I wanted the licensing contract if only because their data is valuable to me to have," Schoenfeld said. "But I would have to sell many more copies of the application to recoup those royalties." Schoenfeld said the MTA's assertion that the schedule information is copyrighted intellectual property is baseless, because the iPhone displays and disseminates the information differently from what the MTA does. "The copyright law is very clear that you cannot copyright facts and tables of data," Schoenfeld said. "A train schedule itself might be considered intellectual property but the data itself has nothing artistic about it." The MTA says Schoenfeld's application is not immune from licensing because the information pertains to their transit operations, spokesman Kevin Ortiz said. One concern is that, without a licensing agreement, Schoenfeld could distribute information that might be inaccurate, Ortiz said. "The bigger concern is that he is not licensed by us so we can't verify the information he is providing is correct," Ortiz said. "If people have problems with his information, they won't be calling him. They'll be calling us." Freundlich did not return a call. Schoenfeld declined to discuss total sales for the application. Schoenfeld said Freundlich also told him that the stationstops.com site may infringe the MTA's copyright, but Ortiz said the MTA has no issue with the site. Jim Cameron, chairman of the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council, said the MTA is trying to discourage Schoenfeld's digital use of the data. "He is just finding a way to aggregate data that is already listed on the MTA Web site and share it with commuters," Cameron said. "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." Copyright law does not protect facts, such as phone numbers, but does cover the form in which certain information is expressed, said John Morgan, a professor at the Quinnipiac University School of Law in Hamden who teaches intellectual property law. "There is a very good chance that what he is copying is not copyrightable," Morgan said. "There is also the argument that the MTA is a semi-public entity and that there should be no copyright on the schedule information they provide." But if the iPhone application represents the train and bus schedules in a way that is similar to the MTA, so that riders confuse it with MTA information, there could be a trademark violation, Morgan said. "If there is a substantial likelihood of confusion, that could be a test from a trademark perspective, but I don't know if they are going to make that claim," Morgan said. Staff Writer Martin B. Cassidy can be reached at [email protected] or 203-964-2264. To see more of The Stamford Advocate, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.stamfordadvocate.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Stamford Advocate, Conn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |