Entitlement and greed in the digital age never cease to amaze me…

Since the age of entitlement is upon us, why not highlight the problems and idiocy that is prevalent in today’s world with another story of someone/group abusing and using DMCA to stifle forward progress. Today’s story-o-stupidity centers around an iPhone app named “StationStops” (iTunes Link) and the MTA. StationStops as you can gather from the name, provides offline access to train arrival/departure times for New York’s metropolitan train lines. The problem is that the MTA is throwing out the now all too common complaint of a DMCA violation as they claim the train schedules and data are copyrighted intellectual property. The developer, Chris, believes stalled negotiations with the MTA is the reason they’re being less than hospitable.

Apparently the MTA wanted Chris to pay $5,000 up front for royalties as well as 10% of all app revenue. Again, instead of actually adapting to new technologies themselves and bringing some revolutionary application or service to the public, they’re choosing to keep innovative and quite useful services from coming forward. Sadly, we yet again see another abuse and misinterpretation of the digital cancer that is the DMCA. There is one big problem with the MTA’s claim however. The train schedule data they are claiming copyright and intellectual property over is nothing more than a table of values. If you didn’t know, it is technically not possible to claim ownership over facts or values/data. The train schedule data therefore cannot be claimed as any single person’s or organization’s property.

Hopefully Chris fights back against the MTA as he has every right to use the data tables. Do you feel Chris is within his legal limits?

Source: Alley Insider, Image Source