Routsey's creator, Steven Peterson, says his app got pulled because a company called NextBus Information Systems (NBIS) told Apple that it had the exclusive right to distribute the NextBus data, which is on the Web. That was good enough for Apple to pull the plug. It's told Routsey and NBIS to work things out. Until then, Routsey is out of the AppStore.

NBIS was looking for a $1 per download licensing fee, but Peterson says that when he really looked into things, it's not clear that NBIS has the right to do this. (He initially charged US$2.99 for the software, but now says he'll give it away, if he can just get Apple to let him publish his app.)

That's because the SFMTA says that it owns of the data and it's totally fine for Routsey to use it. "We're looking at making all of our data as public as possible," SFMTA spokesman Judson True told me.

The saga in San Francisco, where many are up in arms. San Francisco paid around $10 million to set up the system. Why is a private company now preventing anyone from using this public data in a useful way?

Peterson told me that he feels he's being shaken down. NextBus Information Systems has said it has a legitimate claim to the data, which the SFMTA, in turn, thinks it owns. Apple won't touch the whole mess with a 10-foot pole.