MTA blogger defends iPhone app

New Haven (WTNH) - A blogger that created an application for the iPhone has been asked to cease and desist by the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) because they say he is distributing their train schedules without their consent.

Chris Schoenfeld says he set up his blog to keep Metro North commuters informed and give them a place to air their complaints. But now he says the MTA is trying to silence him.

Shoenfeld started blogging three years ago when he went with his wife on her commute to New York on Metro North.

"There was no seats - we were in a bar car because they had run out of working trains to seat people," he said.

After that he created stationstops.com . It's a blog for and about people who ride the rails. He recently got a call from an MTA lawyer saying his blog was pretending to be an official MTA website.

"I said, that's ludicrous because half of my stories about the MTA are very critical of you," Chris said.

Then Chris got a letter about a different topic. The most popular feature on his website is an application for the iPhone . For $6 it sends you train schedules and the information comes from the published Metro North schedules. Now the MTA wants a share of Chris's profits.

Here's what it boils down to: the MTA publishes its schedule information online and hands it out free to anyone who wants to pick up a copy. The question is - is this the intellectual property of the MTA? The MTA says yes, and Chris has to pay them a share of his profits to use it.

Chris has a different view.

"Copyright can only be applied to art, it can't be applied to facts. If you have unoriginal list of data that are facts, you can't copyright that," he said.

The MTA says if a commuter misses a train because Chris gives him bad information, the commuter won't call Chris, he'll call the MTA. That's why the MTA spokesman says Chris must become an official, paying licensee.

"This is totally a case of big MTA lawyers getting on the phone with a blogger and expecting him to sit down when they say sit and anybody with less experience than me in this field probably would have," Chris said.

Chris was willing to become a licensee, and start paying the MTA, but the MTA wanted a piece of his profits dating back more than two years. The MTA says that is the standard contract. The cease and desist order came Wednesday. Chris is looking for a lawyer to help him fight it.