What’s more convenient than having an unfamiliar subway system’s map and timetable information right there on your iPhone? Oh, what’s that, Berlin? Such a convenience violates copyright? Excellent!
There’s an application for the iPhone called Fahr-Info Berlin. It’s just as I described—a free app that contains the city’s subway (“metro”) timetables; it can also work in conjunction with maps to give you an idea of which station is closet to you at any given time. The company that operates the subway, BVG, claims that the application violates its copyright.
BVG, in other words, want to make money off the SUPER SECRET KNOWLEDGE of what time the next train shows up. That’s nice.
Now, BVG says that it’s going to develop its own version of Fahr-Info Berlin, and, as such, the free version, developed by a 21-year-old student, needs to be removed from the Apple Store. It’s still available to download last I checked.
Wired points out similar instances. For example, NS, which runs the Dutch railway network, has pulled the ol’ copyright defense in order to get another iPhone application, Trein, shut down. And doesn’t the London subway authorities sue someone every 15 seconds over its map? Crazy.
All of this absolutely reminds me of Mr. Burns’ attempt to blot out the sun because it provides free energy. The copyright claims, I think, are just as silly.
That’s rediculous. And with the iPhone and 3G or wireless networks couldn’t you just look up schedules VIA internet? I’m confused.
Great,
this was one of the best app i ever had on my iPhone -.-
Do they plan to make you pay for the new app(which would be plain silly) or do they just want to waste resource of their company to create (and maintain) something that somebody else already provided for free…?
How is that thing copyrighted anyway, frankly the more news you hear about it, the more you think that i.p. is just a very wrong concept
I don’t know enough about European copyright law to be sure about this, but here in the U.S., this information is not copyrightable. It’s facts, and you can’t copyright facts. You can copyright the arrangement of the facts (i.e. how pretty the time-table is), but the information about the train times would not be protectable. This is a very basic concept in U.S. copyright law, so unless German law is dramatically different, this is just silly.