If the SFMTA has some kind of contract that clearly spells out who owns what, it's not producing it. And neither is NBIS.

So in the meantime, riders miss buses, and San Francisco, one hopes, learns a lesson: It's the data, stupid. Keeping it open isn't just good for business, it's a public service.

True says that the situation is "causing us to evaluate our policies and practices." That's a good thing, because governments sit on a huge amount of data, and technologies like the iPhone and Google Maps are giving us new ways of processing and visualizing this information, just so long as legal wrangling doesn't get in the way.