What does the MTA of NYC says about the StationStops app?”
Our Metro-North blogging brethren StationStops, who’s gotten considerable ink/face time for his spat with the MTA over his iPhone app offering real-time schedule information, says the row continues. At the heart of the issue is whether or not the MTA owns its schedule information, and whether an independent blogger/app creator can make money by formatting and selling such information. StationStops mastermind Chris Schoenfeld says the MTA is holding out for a 10% cut of his royalties garnered between the app’s launch date and the time Schoenfeld and the MTA commenced a licensing discussion with the railroad–about $170. Chris writes: StationStops for iPhone is in compliance with a newly-released MTA licensing policy document. In the document, developers who collect the schedule data themselves and put an MTA-approved disclaimer on their app do not need to have a license with MTA or pay royalties. StationStops has identified this to MTA and requested that the MTA retract the cease and des
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.
The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) has changed its mind about how third-party app developers can use some of its data, and therefore one iPhone app is now back available for download. Previously, the MTA considered its train and bus schedules as copyrighted intellectual property, and demanded fees from developers who used its timetables in their apps. In August, we wrote about how Chris Schoenfeld had to take his StationStops iPhone app down when the two parties failed to agree on licensing terms. But in a sudden change of mind, the MTA has dropped the case, and the StationStops app is back on Apple’s app store.
