
You cannot copyright a Tweet - mcav
http://www.zeldman.com/2010/02/25/you-cannot-copyright-a-tweet/
======
decode
Here's a much more thorough discussion from an actual IP lawyer:

<http://canyoucopyrightatweet.com/>

The skinny:

"The question is not: Are Tweets Copyrightable. The question is: Is This Tweet
Copyrightable. The copyrightability of Tweets is not dependent on the fact
that they are Tweets. Rather, it’s dependent on the analysis of the Tweet in
question. The all-encompassing response that all Tweets are either protected
or not protected is misguided. The real response is that it depends. However,
when you analyze most Tweets, they would never individually pass copyright
muster.

I read an interesting post in the thread I’ve discussed throughout this
article, and the post mentioned a Haiku. To me, that’s smart thinking. Finding
a possible protectable Tweet among the hordes of non-possibility. Maybe a
Haiku is your ticket to Tweet monopolization. Otherwise, you probably won’t be
able to protect anything."

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pseingatl
Of course you can. Are you suggesting that you can't copyright a haiku?
Zeldman reads too much into the word "phrase". Even if Zeldman were correct--
and he's not--the focus should be on originality and not copying someone's
thoughts.

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retro
What about the artist/poet Jenny Holzer who tweets her latest compositions
before subsequently publishing them elsewhere:

<http://twitter.com/Jennyholzer>

These short phrases have been the basis of her entire body of work for
decades. I find it hard to believe she cannot copyright them.

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ElliotH
I wonder about UK law on this?

From the UK Copyright website:

Copyright is an automatic right and arises whenever an individual or company
creates a work. To qualify, a work should be regarded as original, and exhibit
a degree of labour, skill or judgement.

...

Names, titles, short phrases and colours are not generally considered unique
or substantial enough to be covered, but a creation, such as a logo, that
combines these elements may be.

Here we have 'short phrases' excluded again - but in the same context as a
title. I'd say that many tweets would meet the criteria in the first paragraph
just about.

Thoughts from any other UK people?

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bonsaitree
Patently (heh) false.

Given that the Tweet is already attached to an identity (individual or
corporate account) and assuming one may claim even a reasonable semblance of
creativity and originality on the content of said Tweet, it's technically
Copywritable, but a mere "status" update, link, or factual listing is not.

\- Think of all the copywritten corporate and government slogans (Just Do It,
Army of One, What can brown do for you, Aim Higher, etc.) which could quite
easily fit into a Tweet with room to spare.

\- Think of all the haikus (see @MJ), other short poems, and unicode/ascii-art
#twitterart (see @l_I__I_l) posts.

That being said, I can't think of any rational (e.g. economic) reason which
would support registration of the Tweet as the "fixed medium".

Mostly, I can envision defensive sorts of legal actions such as blatant
plagiarism or abuse/mis-use of a pre-existing logo, unattributed passage, or
slogan.

As the multitudes of "sampling" lawsuit precedents in the music industry has
shown, authorship rights of even nano-sized digital content can be
successfully asserted.

~~~
teilo
And you have made the very mistake he references in the article: Confusing
copyright with trademark. Slogans are trademarks. Trademarks cost money to
register. Copyright can simply be claimed.

~~~
bonsaitree
Guilty as charged and absolutely correct.

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froo
I'm not a lawyer by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd have to disagree.
There is potentially more information that is contained in a tweet than
Twitter republishes.

For example, if I was posting a tweet using SMS the original publishing
platform is my phone (it's saved onto it first) and then passed onto Twitter.

Twitter then chooses to disregard the additional information contained within
the entirity of a text message (the first 20 characters if memory serves me
right, its been awhile since I looked up the specs). However, I'd argue those
additional characters that Twitter disregards are copywritable as per the
definition in the linked document.

 _Listings of ingredients, as in recipes, labels, or formulas. When a recipe
or formula is accompanied by an explanation or directions, the text directions
may be copyrightable, but the recipe or formula itself remains
uncopyrightable._

The additional information contained in an SMS wold be akin to directions.

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mhartl
AFAIK, ZINAL, so take this with a grain of salt.

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dnaquin
see: <http://twitter.com/devinjames/status/1420799605>

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cmars232
1\. yEnc a DVD movie 2\. Chop into many, many tweets 3\. Fail whale!

~~~
aplusbi
You're doing it backwards. The DVD is already copyrighted, so the copyright-
ability of a tweet is irrelevant.

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waterlesscloud
Or maybe 140 characters of code in the language of your choice...

