Muni App Makers, Rejoice: MTA, Apple Disputes Private Company's Claims To Own Arrival Data

Might I be the first to say "hmph!" on NBIS. They be tryin to take our public data! Hmph!

NBIS is a pair of douchebags, for sure, but NextBus (the real one) are a pack of assholes too, with their double talk and refusal to talk straight on this. Fuck them and fuck NBIS too!

and iCommute paid the extortion, and look where it got them! nowhere! their app sucks!!

So when this Orloff guy makes outlandish claims about owning data that he apparently has nothing to do with then the correct reaction from a legal point of view is to assume that he is right until someone bothers to prove otherwise? And the company who would be most likely to own the data (if anyone could) refuse to confirm or deny the crazy guy's claims?

If I start a company called Nextbus Associates could I do the same thing? I feel like I'm missing out on something big here.

i second that. hmph!

So let me get this right:

NBIS has no relationship to NextBus, but Orloff of NBIS misrepresents himself as the big boss of NextBus to claim that he has the rights to Muni's data?

Isn't that considered fraud?

After reading the other articles and comments, it sounds like NBIS (headed up by the crazy guy) and the real Nextbus are both owned by the same parent company (Grey Island)? Grey Island probably created NBIS after acquiring Nextbus specifically to do asshole stuff like this while leaving the real Nextbus (who have to actually work with the MTA) with some plausible deniability about any attempts to restrict access to public data.

So presumeabley as long as the crazy guy at NBIS can bring in enough money from his baseless legal threats to cover his own salary then the strategy was a success. It's not like they are going to go after their own subsidiary for misrepresenting their own contract terms.

Oh, man, you guys are making me feel bad that this wasn't clear enough in my earlier article. Let me try to fix that:

Grey Island (that's the company that runs NextBus) acquired NextBus Information Systems in 2004. When they did, they made an agreement that says (according to Owen Moore of Grey Island):

"A franchise right has been granted to the seller of the Nextbus business, Nextbus Information Systems Inc., for a period of 25 years, renewable for a further 25 years. The franchise relates to advertisement and subscription services of Nextbus and it is agreed that the Company will contribute towards the development of any product as it relates to the Franchise Agreement, contingent upon the mutual agreement between Company and Nextbus Information Systems Inc. Such development costs are to be borne equally by the parties, to a maximum potential contribution by the Company of US$200,000. To date, no development costs related to advertisement and subscription services have been incurred"

The problem is, those rights weren't Grey Island's to promise, since the MTA is saying they own the rights to that data and NextBus has agreed to that.

Does that help explain the players?

The goal is still that NBIS exists to make as much money as they can from data access shakedowns without involving the real Nextbus though.

I'd like to hop on the 5-Fulton bus with Beth Spotswood, head out towards Ocean Beach so the two of us could kick back some beers at the Beach Chalet.

I'd like to know how much money NBIS is stealing from MTC for the 511 real time Muni feed. If Colette Vogele and the Apple attorneys are right, I bet iCommute's ransom was chump change compared to what MTC is forking over, and MTC should get some better attorneys.