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Twitter Says Your Tweets Belong To You

CWmike writes "Twitter has modified its terms of service to state unequivocally that messages posted belong to their authors and not to the company. 'Twitter is allowed to "use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute" your tweets because that's what we do. However, they are your tweets and they belong to you,' wrote Twitter co-founder Biz Stone in a blog post Thursday announcing the modifications. Twitter is still hammering out a set of guidelines for developers on the proper use of the company's API. What do Twitterers think of the TOS changes? Barbara Krasnoff writes, ' Twitter announces new ToS. Tweeters shrug,' noting that some appreciated the company's transparency in contacting its users and pointing out the changes that were being made."

9 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. All your tweets are belong to you! by chrisj_0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    couldn't help myself!

  2. CYA move by jmanforever · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sounds like Twitter is trying to cover their butts.

    "No officer lawman sir, That is not our terrorist message, and we don't have anything to do with it. All the messages belong to the person who wrote them."

    1. Re:CYA move by NoobixCube · · Score: 4, Informative

      They claim all usual rights of ownership, but foist responsibilities back on the user.

      --
      Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
  3. Re:Your tweets belong to you but... by truthsearch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Same as on /. Look down...

    All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2009 SourceForge, Inc.

  4. Re:Your tweets belong to you but... by itsdapead · · Score: 4, Insightful

    we can do whatever we want with them....

    What alternative do you suggest?

    Option A: don't claim the right to "use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute" tweets. Problem: publishing material on a website involves using, copying, transmitting, displaying, adapting, modifying and distributing it, so they would be infringing copyright and, sooner or later, get sued by some troll (in other news: Twitter operates in countries outside the US which don't have the same "fair use" clauses in their copyright laws).

    Option B: claim ownership of everything. They could do this if they wanted to - nobody forces you to post your 120 character masterwork on Twitter.

    Option C: lock out the public and pay professional twitterers to produce pithy and erudite tweets on a "work for hire" basis. Tempting, but I don't see the business model.

    Your call.

    --
    In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
  5. Re:If They Truly Belong To Me... by emurphy42 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Specifically, there's a "delete this tweet" option attached to each tweet, and a "delete my account" option under Settings. I haven't tried either one, but surely you can create a second account and do so?

  6. Re:Your tweets belong to you but... by genner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    we can do whatever we want with them....

    What alternative do you suggest?

    Option A: don't claim the right to "use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute" tweets. Problem: publishing material on a website involves using, copying, transmitting, displaying, adapting, modifying and distributing it, so they would be infringing copyright and, sooner or later, get sued by some troll (in other news: Twitter operates in countries outside the US which don't have the same "fair use" clauses in their copyright laws).

    Option B: claim ownership of everything. They could do this if they wanted to - nobody forces you to post your 120 character masterwork on Twitter.

    Option C: lock out the public and pay professional twitterers to produce pithy and erudite tweets on a "work for hire" basis. Tempting, but I don't see the business model.

    Your call.

    D: Move the server offshore and pirate other people's work.

  7. Re:Your tweets belong to you but... by Itninja · · Score: 4, Funny

    What they don't tell you is "the Poster" is a code name of a multinational terrorist organization called "Sphere Tot". And said organization is stockpiling all your posts to be used in the inevitable Irony War of 2012.

    --
    I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
  8. In other news by Junior+J.+Junior+III · · Score: 4, Funny

    The city sewage treatment plant has announced that everybody owns their own flushings.

    --
    You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!