- Posts tagged US Law
- Explore US Law on posterous
You cannot copyright your Tweet!
Dear Tweeple, please note this: you can't copyright or "license" what you said on Twitter. Since the messages are too short and in the public domain.
Contrary to popular belief and Twitter’s terms of service, you cannot copyright a Tweet. Under US law, copyright is granted on publication to “original works of authorship” finalized in “fixed forms of expression” but this does not extend to names, titles, or short phrases (PDF).As messages sent via Twitter cannot be longer than 140 characters, they cannot be copyrighted. However original, witty, or profound they may be, nothing more than good manners protects your original expression of authorship. If you wish to let other people quote or use your Tweets, you need not “license” them; indeed, technically, you cannot license them, since they are in the public domain the instant you publish them.
[via Zeldman]
