You'd think the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and San Francisco's Bay
Area Rapid Transit would have a vested interest in helping commuters navigate their systems. But, apparently both
agencies have a higher goal: protecting revenue streams. After web designer William Bright put an iPod-formatted New
York subway map up on his site, he received a cease-and-desist letter from
the MTA's legal department, warning him that the material was copyrighted. He received a similar letter from the San
Francisco agency, which noted, "there is a widespread belief that materials published by public agencies such as BART
are in the public domain. This belief is incorrect." While BART claims the noble goal of trying to avoid the
dissemination of inaccurate info (odd, since Bright's info came straight from the BART site), the MTA makes no secret
of its efforts to make money by trademarking its symbols and cracking down on violators. (Good thing the policy wasn't
in effect when Duke Ellington was around.) In the meantime, Bright has designed new versions of the maps, and has
already posted the San Francisco version.
