Odds and Ends #51: Transport for London made a terrible decision and I hope they reverse it

Plus Britain's broken car market, what the LibDems should do next and how some lefty institutions have a class problem,

Hello, it’s time for Odds and Ends, your regular round-up of interesting links and shorter takes.

This week, I feature:

• Why the car market is completely broken

• Some big thoughts on where the LibDems go next

• Why Labour should be (ironically) a little more class conscious

• And why geo-engineering might not be all that bad after all

But first, an issue that is so important, I’m going to put it above the paywall, in the hope that the bully-pulpit of my newsletter might help change the outcome.

TfL’s heavy-handed approach to “trademark enforcement” is bad

One significant reason I believe open data is important – whether for postcodes or other public sector datasets – is because it can lead to the creation tools and apps that are fun.

I mean sure, there are strong economic arguments about how opening up data helps stimulate innovation and economic growth. And yes, it is good for democracy when organisations work out in the open. But in its own way, open data can also create a little more joy in the world, as hobbyists and bedroom coders can use it to create new digital toys.

One such example of this is the work of Matthew Somerville, who for the last 15 years has used open data from Transport for London (TfL) to power real time maps that visualise where trains actually are across the Tube network.¹

Is such a tool important? Not really. Is it critical information for commuters? Probably not so much.² But does it bring a smile to the face to see those dots moving around the map, representing London’s transport network in action? Yes it does.

Which is why I was sad to see that TfL has decided to be a bit of a dick about it.

[O]n 7th January 2025, I received two emails out of the blue; a vaguely personal one from someone at TfL telling me to remove the schematic Tube map, and my hosting provider received a very impersonal one from the “Trademark Enforcement team”. (That second one says “We informed the registrant of our complaint, but were unable to resolve this issue.” but presumably they can’t mean the first email sent about an hour earlier? This is the first I’ve ever heard from them.)

This is of course perfectly within their right so to do, though I would have hoped for a different approach. Sure, I could have made some changes and kept the maps up, although as above they have been fine with it for many years. But I believe it is possible to both “protect” your trademark (or whatever you think this is) and not treat people like this. And rewarding this approach to me feels wrong.

The internet isn’t what it was 15 years ago, and I can’t be bothered dealing with large organisations removing any semblance of joy from it. I’m sure they won’t care, but I am just too tired.

So sorry, the maps are all gone.

The nub of the complaint isn’t the use of real time data itself. There’s an open API that anyone can use to access it – which is brilliant.

The problem though is that Somerville displayed the data on top of a copy of the iconic London Tube map, which is intellectual property owned by TfL.

On one level, this is unsurprising. Historically, TfL has protected the Tube map (as well as other IP, like the roundel symbol) pretty fiercely, presumably as licensing it can be pretty lucrative. And it has taken a similarly heavy-handed approach to other hobbyists in the past.

For example, way back in 2006, the “Trademark Enforcement” team turned the screws on Geoff Marshall who, before he was a famous YouTuber, hosted alternative, fan-made Tube maps on his website.³

As Somerville says, by the letter of TfL’s licensing terms, this is within TfL’s rights – the tube map is a trademark owned by the organisation. But I really think the decision to go after him just stinks.⁴

If he was selling tube map mugs and t-shirts, sending a cease and desist would make sense. But he wasn’t – he created a data visualisation for other railway nerds to enjoy, that he wasn’t profiting from. Functionally, the only thing that has happened following TfL’s enforcement is that the world has become a tiny bit worse.

So I hope that this was a mistake. Perhaps it was just someone in the enforcement team being a little over zealous? In any case, I hope that by helping draw attention to this, I can join the chorus of people gently encouraging TfL to reverse the decision so that Somerville can revive his awesome maps.

And if TfL want a broader lesson from this, I think there is a better approach to trademark enforcement than this extremely miserable approach. And that is to learn from how Paramount handles fan-films based on Star Trek.

In that case, when fans make fan-films or write fan-fiction and so on, as long as no money is made, Paramount basically let their fans get on with it (with a few conditions attached) – knowing the goodwill it creates outweighs any gains from enforcement.

This seems like a much better approach for TfL to take: It’s an approach that will continue to let fun, nice things exist in the world, and it is one that won’t upset the cadre of people who, in happier times, would be the most enthusiastic supporters of what TfL does.

So c’mon TfL, don’t be mean – and let us have the maps back!

Now let’s get on with some other links.