

TfL Kill Two of My Apps - bensummers
http://mbarclay.net/?p=825

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abraham
UPDATE 24/10/2010 @ 6pm: I have been informed that the change was part of a
security update & that TfL are working on restoring the service immediately
and are also fully committed to open data.

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mjs
This should be at the top of the post, rather than right at the bottom...
(Another case of malice or stupidity--stupidity wins a lot of the time.)

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wowfat
Yea, reminds me of malice vs stupidity
<http://www.webdigi.co.uk/blog/2009/stupidity-versus-malice/>

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iuguy
TFL are subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The blog poster should be
able to get answers, documentation etc. through that.

If he really wants to scare the crap out of them he should also issue a
subject access request for all data mentioning him, including emails and
files. This type of thing sends a government funded agency into a complete
tailspin.

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ceejayoz
Here in the States, the government knows full well how to deal with uppity
citizens abusing our Freedom of Information Act.

We put them on hold for four years, then tell them it'll cost $1 million to
get everything together.

[http://www.9news.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=157782&...](http://www.9news.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=157782&catid=346)

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immad
In the UK the max you can charge is £10 and I assume their is a time limit but
not sure about that.

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estel
In law the authorities have 20 working days to respond, with a few defined
exceptions.

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gstar
The concept of "crown copyright" in the UK is stifling to innovation,
backward, and shows no respect for those who pay tax.

We should ask our local MPs to do as the US have done, where government
created IP is public domain.

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pbhjpbhj
> _We should ask our local MPs to do as the US have done, where government
> created IP is public domain._

Perhaps I'm making too many assumptions but I'm thinking that even if the data
were PD it wouldn't matter. They still need to get hold of it in the first
place. The data is continuously refreshed, presumably, even caching the data
returned by the API (for more than a short time) would be bad - trains|buses
are delayed, break-down, there are strikes and closures, etc. and so transport
services are in constant flux.

------
16s
Summary:

Developer's app depends on external API to function. He has sold thousands of
apps and his customers are happy. Then, external API stops working. So, his
app stops working. He wrote a long article complaining about the external API
and its failure impacting his business.

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fragmede
(Transport for London) disabled open journey planning API after supplier
releases own commercial app.

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ramchip
I don't think you can say "after supplier releases own commercial app" without
being a little dishonest:

 _I have been using this successfully for more than 6 months for both London
Bus (now called London Travel Deluxe) and London Tube Deluxe Pro for iPad._

The blogger (and many commenters) jumped to conclusions way too quickly here.

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fragmede
> It’s an uncomfortable coincidence that the XML API was closed down a week
> after the removal of MDV’s release of the ‘My TfL’ app.

I reworded the title based on my reading of the article where the above
quotation is from. TfL was a meaningless acronym in the title, especially
without any context.

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w1ntermute
Anybody else get confused by the title because of the British English practice
of using the plural verb forms for (certain) collective nouns?

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jlees
As a native British English speaker the title feels wrong to me, despite
common practices.

Manchester United Win Football Game = fine

TfL Kill Puppies = ok, I suppose

TfL Kill My Apps = No, they _killed_ your app.

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eschutte2
Why does it have to be _killed_ when Man U doesn't have to be _won_?

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jlees
Without putting my linguist hat on (in the middle of a hack day) my gut
feeling is the 'newspaper'ness of the title. "Entity Verbs Noun" is fine if
it's an impartial style report, but "Entity Verbs My Noun" is only good if it
is a continuous verb.

"TFL Kill All Hopes Of Timely Service", for example, would be OK.

