ie8 fix
madison

Discussion on:
Twitter tweaks terms of service

View entire thread
Message 3 of 1
Next » « Prev
0 Votes
+ -
I suggest none at all
josephmartins 15th Sep 2009
Paul,

There's little point to any ownership of 140 character thought-bytes on a service such as Twitter. I have yet to read a single reasonable, defensible argument (beyond one of personal privacy) in favor of treating tweets as protected IP.

It would be nice if Twitter would respect privacy such that individuals who are not in a Twitter race for followers can be assured that their tweets will remain private - to the extent that their followers respect their privacy. Should followers choose to RT that's not a Twitter problem.

Other than that, Stone should simply tell Twitter members, "Look, it's a free service. You're not paying a cent for it. Use it at your own risk and understand that what you write is out of your hands once you choose to publish it."

That, after all, is the reality of the Internet where public and semi-public words, images and videos are backed up, replicated, and often redistributed without permission.

As an aside...

Frankly, other than "private" comments to followers about topics such as the condition of one's health or perhaps strategic business/military maneuvers, the value of most tweets as personal IP approaches zero.

I get the impression that much of the uproar over ownership of tweets comes from those who believe they should be compensated for the reuse of their already-published thought-bytes. To them I say, stop using Twitter to freely convey IP if you believe it has monetary value. Publish it on Twitter at your own risk.

As tech consultants, we certainly do not use Twitter to convey anything of real lasting value. And clearly neither do our competitors. We mostly treat it as a medium to share interesting links and comments related to our work.
ie8 fix
Click Here
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

ie8 fix