iSubway
Baffling story of the day: New York’s and San Francisco’s mass transit systems don’t want people putting unofficial maps of the systems on their iPods.
The New York Times reported in June that the MTA has begun registering its colorful route symbols as trademarks and has sent more than 30 cease-and-desist letters to businesses that had been using the route symbols to sell such items as bagels, perfume, T-shirts and tote bags.
The financially strapped MTA has a licensing department that has approved about 25 product lines, including neckties and coffee mugs, the Times reported.
Bright also used a map that became outdated when the BART system extended one of its lines and shortened another, said Jim Allison, a spokesman for BART. “We don’t have a problem with people disseminating information about BART,” Allison said. “We do have a problem with people pirating information that is incorrect,” he said.
Unless this is all an effort to shake down iPodSubwayMaps.com, this is inane. Demanding licensing fees to provide this service — even though BART will be doing the same thing for free shortly, allegedly — really misunderstands how much people are willing to pay for this, and thus how much money BART is losing out on.
And “pirating information that is incorrect?” First off, how massively self-important is it to claim that reprinting a subway map is piracy? That’s neither intellectual property nor is it information that BART has a compelling interest in keeping proprietary. In case they’ve forgotten, their mission is to provide affordable and convenient public transporation in and around San Francisco. And iPodSubwayMaps.com will naturally update their maps when they (rarely) change. That’s an insulting load of BS to pass off as a legitimate reason.
San Franciscans or Oaklanders (like, say, Mom and Dad) might be well-served to give a call to their local council members and ask them to remind BART to focus on their mission instead of picking fights with people who are trying to make using BART easier and more convenient.
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Odd. I know that in London there must have been a crackdown on unofficial London Underground merchandise. When I was there in 2003 there was all sorts of unofficial Underground merch everywhere I looked, using the official logo. When I went back in May, 2005, there was still lots of unofficial merch around, but it all used a newly designed logo that only bore a slight resemblance to the official logo. It looked like ass, frankly. Thankfully there was plenty of official London Underground merch to go around.
Maybe New York and San Francisco see the potential in selling licensed merchandised and this is a pre-emptive strike? Me, I’ve always wanted an official rail driver BART jacket. Seriously.
Comment by Jonah Weiland — September 27, 2005 @ 0:13