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News & commentary on intellectual property issues.
Nov102010 | Steve O'Donnell
Are my tweets copyrighted?
Twitter updates are probably not copyrightable. . . but could be.
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Comments
"By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed)."
Followed by this "tip":
"Tip This license is you authorizing us to make your Tweets available to the rest of the world and to let others do the same. But what’s yours is yours – you own your content."
Its the "let others do the same" that I find the most interesting. If the "tip" is part of the terms, and not just a commentary on the terms, one possible interpretation is that Twitter is granting each user a sublicense under Twitter's license to reproduce each other user's tweets.
It's questionable if the TIP is part of the contract or not, my guess is that it isn't. If it is, I'd have to say that the second interpretation doesn't make sense because it conflicts with the "yours is yours" bit and because these "others" aren't party to the contract.
Aren't contracts fun?
is someone sends a RT on twitter. Steve did a whole lot of talking to compensate for not knowing her name. A simple answer to her question is, no. No (her name) you can not sue for copyright infringement if you are Re tweeted. That is what Twitter is. Tweet,
Re-tweet, Post, Reply and Quote, and the key principles of effectively networking of twitter. Now if someone is posing...you may be able to sue for statutory damages. I can tell you more, but, ill have to pull that lawyer stuff out and that will hit your pockets
harder than me posting facts to a bunch of posers. Twitter is more so for conversation. On a social network like Linkedin, that would be unacceptable, as the good doctor would say. I think she just wants to talk to him face to face. She could have direct message
him on twitter. She could have put him to the side and let Steve know she micro manages her Tweets. Please give her a heads up prior to RT'ing. Or should could unfollow him and wait to see if he even notices she's gone. Twitter is a soap opera at times. That's
what makes it function. You never know which tweet will make you smile and laugh, be concerned for someone or some shape, form or fashion, of entertainment, enlightenment, picture, or moment in life that you missed but can still share.