Who Does Your Neighborhood Belong To?: A roiling lawsuit is claiming that…

A roiling lawsuit is claiming that your neighborhood may not be yours at all! It may have been created by one mathematician and his 15 student interns -- and now that neighborhood is considered the property of a mapping company. Nabe mapper Bernt Wahl believes that neighborhood boundaries, whether drawn by him or not, are in the public domain (including "unofficial" Bernal Heights). Wahl spent years compiling data on 7,000 neighborhoods in 100 cities for a real estate site, which went on to sell the map rights to Vermont-based Maponics. Now it's Maponics suing Wahl for copyright infringement as he continues to develop his original data. Neighborhood-mapping is a $17 billion industry, and it looks like Maponics stands a good chance to win in court. [Wired]For more stories from Curbed SF, go to sf.curbed.com.

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