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Most European nations have database protection laws. Although limited in scope and doesn't prevent you from compiling an identical database from other sources,
by rickmb 15y ago
Most European nations have database protection laws. Although limited in scope and doesn't prevent you from compiling an identical database from other sources, it has insane side-effects. In the Netherlands for instance, the zip-code database is copyright protected.
- joelhaasnoot 15y agoAs is the train timetable info for the bizarre reason to block competition for a new tender.
- strictfp 15y agoSo that's why the journey planners in NL are a complete fail (ns, 9292ov). Always wondered, since NL is quite up to date in general when it comes to IT.
- joelhaasnoot 15y agoActually, there's a lot of work being done, as we speak to change the situation on various levels. In 2013 I believe there will be a public tender for a "National Public Transport Data Warehouse", 9292ov will be supervising it I think, not bidding though. Then there's the openOV project, a new project bringing together data from lots of sources and talking to lots of transport companies and agencies. Most transport tenders include a clause requiring data to be supplied to "national journey planners", so there's hope. Just today they're working on GTFS feeds for most of the Netherlands. The Dutch Railways (NS) now has an API but it's mainly consumer facing data, and nothing truely helpful. tl;dr: Our transit APIs are stuck in 2005 but making headway.