In case anyone is interested, I found this link:
http://www.sabretravelnetwork.com/ho...elector/remote
Sabre offers a service that allows a single individual to access the Sabre GDS for $45 / month, which looks like it allows access to availability information. Obviously $45 / month is a pretty hefty fee compared to other services like EF, and I'm not about to waste that kind of money when EF is available. I just found it interesting, being I knew very little about all this before this event. I have no idea about the information provided there, if that's complete and what flightstats was using, or if they accessed the information in a different manner.