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recalcitranttoyLegal Technology - iPhone Train App Stopped in Its Tracks:
The idea was born out of necessity.
Greenwich, Conn., software developer Chris Schoenfeld was working irregular hours in New York City and needed access to updated Metro-North commuter train schedules for Grand Central Station. He couldn't access those schedules as he rode the subway to the train station because of lack of Internet access.
So he developed a software program for Apple's iPhone, which allows people to access train information without an Internet connection. "I developed the application for myself, and I knew others would appreciate it," Schoenfeld said.
Last October, Apple launched the application as StationStops.com, which is tied to Schoenfeld's blog of the same name. That's when the quasi-public Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owns the Metro-North Railroad, came calling.
Several months of discussions about licensing agreements followed with no resolution, and MTA's in-house legal team claimed that Schoenfeld was infringing "upon MTA's statutory and common law intellectual property rights," according to cease-and-desist letters sent to Schoenfeld and Apple.
Apple disabled the application in late August.
The main disagreement is over how much money Schoenfeld should pay to MTA in royalties on sales of the application. Schoenfeld hesitated on signing a licensing agreement with MTA that called for a $5,000 payment up-front plus 10 percent of Schoenfeld's profits.
Now MTA wants $170 in royalties that Schoenfeld earned between October and December of last year because Schoenfeld used an MTA logo on the application without MTA's permission. MTA also believes Schoenfeld's disclaimer didn't do enough to separate his service from official MTA information.
But Schoenfeld is not acquiescing, and his IP dispute has become widely discussed in the media and blogosphere about whether MTA is holding back software developers from creating similar programs for riders. No lawsuits have been filed.
Contacted last week, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said the situation could be resolved if Schoenfeld paid the $170. "We would be pleased to ask Apple to restore Mr. Schoenfeld's application once he compensates" MTA, Donovan said.
Donovan said that MTA welcomes development of "innovative applications" that make it easier for riders to access train information.
Officials from Apple did not return a call for comment.
COPYRIGHTING FACTS?
MTA has argued that the train schedule information that Schoenfeld was using was protected by copyright, and thus, subject to a licensing agreement.
"I was using data from their schedules, which is not copyrightable," Schoenfeld said. "I never put their maps on the application."
In a cease-and-desist letter sent to Schoenfeld in August, MTA in-house counsel Lester G. Freundlich said Schoenfeld must sign a licensing agreement for his "commercial use of official Metro-North Railroad train schedules …"
Brooklyn Law School professor Jason Mazzone agrees with Schoenfeld that those schedules cannot be protected by copyright. Mazzone said information about where trains arrive and depart and at what time are facts, and "facts are not copyrightable," as established by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991 in Feist Publications Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co. In that case, Feist copied telephone listings for its own use after Rural refused to license the information.
Mazzone is a constitutional law professor who has written extensively about IP rights.
"The [software] developer is standing on strong legal ground," said Mazzone, noting that he's never heard of an IP dispute related specifically to train schedules.
Michigan State law professor Robert Heverly said as much in a recent blog posting on "The Faculty Lounge."
"I cannot find any way to make myself believe that the MTA has any colorable copyright claim here," Heverly wrote. "In the U.S., 'facts' are not protectable under copyright. You might arrange facts in a particular way and gain protection for your arrangement of them, but you cannot copyright facts as such."
Schoenfeld said the whole situation has rubbed him the wrong way.
Schoenfeld was selling his application through Apple for $2.99, and his contract with Apple called for that company to take 30 percent royalties. Schoenfeld said he has made about $7,000 from the application, which hasn't yet compensated him for the time he spent developing it. "All I care about it getting money for the work that I put into it," he said. "I'm not getting rich off of it."
Schoenfeld said he didn't know if his application would ever be re-launched because of this dispute. He believes MTA should assist software developers, as many other transit authorities in the country have done, in creating applications that provide thorough transit information, including maps.
"All of these great applications are being held up by MTA's legal department," Schoenfeld said.
The idea was born out of necessity.
Greenwich, Conn., software developer Chris Schoenfeld was working irregular hours in New York City and needed access to updated Metro-North commuter train schedules for Grand Central Station. He couldn't access those schedules as he rode the subway to the train station because of lack of Internet access.
So he developed a software program for Apple's iPhone, which allows people to access train information without an Internet connection. "I developed the application for myself, and I knew others would appreciate it," Schoenfeld said.
Last October, Apple launched the application as StationStops.com, which is tied to Schoenfeld's blog of the same name. That's when the quasi-public Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owns the Metro-North Railroad, came calling.
Several months of discussions about licensing agreements followed with no resolution, and MTA's in-house legal team claimed that Schoenfeld was infringing "upon MTA's statutory and common law intellectual property rights," according to cease-and-desist letters sent to Schoenfeld and Apple.
Apple disabled the application in late August.
The main disagreement is over how much money Schoenfeld should pay to MTA in royalties on sales of the application. Schoenfeld hesitated on signing a licensing agreement with MTA that called for a $5,000 payment up-front plus 10 percent of Schoenfeld's profits.
Now MTA wants $170 in royalties that Schoenfeld earned between October and December of last year because Schoenfeld used an MTA logo on the application without MTA's permission. MTA also believes Schoenfeld's disclaimer didn't do enough to separate his service from official MTA information.
But Schoenfeld is not acquiescing, and his IP dispute has become widely discussed in the media and blogosphere about whether MTA is holding back software developers from creating similar programs for riders. No lawsuits have been filed.
Contacted last week, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said the situation could be resolved if Schoenfeld paid the $170. "We would be pleased to ask Apple to restore Mr. Schoenfeld's application once he compensates" MTA, Donovan said.
Donovan said that MTA welcomes development of "innovative applications" that make it easier for riders to access train information.
Officials from Apple did not return a call for comment.
COPYRIGHTING FACTS?
MTA has argued that the train schedule information that Schoenfeld was using was protected by copyright, and thus, subject to a licensing agreement.
"I was using data from their schedules, which is not copyrightable," Schoenfeld said. "I never put their maps on the application."
In a cease-and-desist letter sent to Schoenfeld in August, MTA in-house counsel Lester G. Freundlich said Schoenfeld must sign a licensing agreement for his "commercial use of official Metro-North Railroad train schedules …"
Brooklyn Law School professor Jason Mazzone agrees with Schoenfeld that those schedules cannot be protected by copyright. Mazzone said information about where trains arrive and depart and at what time are facts, and "facts are not copyrightable," as established by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991 in Feist Publications Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co. In that case, Feist copied telephone listings for its own use after Rural refused to license the information.
Mazzone is a constitutional law professor who has written extensively about IP rights.
"The [software] developer is standing on strong legal ground," said Mazzone, noting that he's never heard of an IP dispute related specifically to train schedules.
Michigan State law professor Robert Heverly said as much in a recent blog posting on "The Faculty Lounge."
"I cannot find any way to make myself believe that the MTA has any colorable copyright claim here," Heverly wrote. "In the U.S., 'facts' are not protectable under copyright. You might arrange facts in a particular way and gain protection for your arrangement of them, but you cannot copyright facts as such."
Schoenfeld said the whole situation has rubbed him the wrong way.
Schoenfeld was selling his application through Apple for $2.99, and his contract with Apple called for that company to take 30 percent royalties. Schoenfeld said he has made about $7,000 from the application, which hasn't yet compensated him for the time he spent developing it. "All I care about it getting money for the work that I put into it," he said. "I'm not getting rich off of it."
Schoenfeld said he didn't know if his application would ever be re-launched because of this dispute. He believes MTA should assist software developers, as many other transit authorities in the country have done, in creating applications that provide thorough transit information, including maps.
"All of these great applications are being held up by MTA's legal department," Schoenfeld said.