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Subject: |
The Fine Art Of "Tweeting" Legally |
| Date: |
2009-06-01
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The Fine Art Of
"Tweeting" Legally
By Cliff Ennico
www.creators.com
As just about everyone knows by now, the hottest new social networking
tool on the Internet is Twitter (http://twitter.com). A quick
search on Amazon shows no fewer than 12 how-to books on the site
(including the inevitable "Twitter for Dummies"), and a Google search
for "Twitter How to Use" yields - are you ready for this? - 118 million
unique Web hits. Not bad for a two year old website.
For the few of you out there who haven’t heard of it, Twitter is to
social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook what haiku is to
an epic poem. You open a Twitter profile page, select a username,
and post very short messages of 140 characters or less (called
"tweets") on the site. If people like what you’re "tweeting"
about, they can "follow", or subscribe, to your tweets. You can
search on the site for "tweets" on specific topics (such as a recent
news event), and communicate to a limited extent with other Twitterers
by following each other’s "tweets".
Many authors, celebrities and other public figures use Twitter (as they
do other social networking websites) to build an online fanbase.
There are even rumors that Twitter might actually be used to conduct
business online. Unfortunately, most of the chatter on Twitter
(of the "I had a BLT sandwich for lunch today but the mayonnaise had
gone bad" variety) is as ephemeral as the twittering of real birds in
actual trees, and the site is bound to attract more than its share of -
sorry, folks, I can’t resist this - "birdbrains".
Both the power and the perils of Twitter were brought home to me in a
recent live presentation I gave at a trade show in Los Angeles.
While I was speaking onstage I noticed a woman in the front row was
busy typing away at her laptop computer with her head down. I
thought she was ignoring me, and frankly I was a little miffed - as a
professional speaker I know there are always a few people who aren't
paying rapt attention to my program but usually they have the courtesy
to hide in the back rows where I can't see them.
During the intermission, I approached the lady and asked her, my voice
dripping with irony, if she was enjoying my presentation. She
looked up at me and said "oh, yes, very much, and my two friends who
are also here today agree. You see, we came to the show to listen
to three speakers, and unfortunately you were all scheduled to speak at
the same time. So each of us went to one of the presentations
with our laptops, and we're posting ‘tweets' on Twitter letting each
other know what the speakers are saying. It's like we can be in
three places at once. So far we all agree you're the best
speaker, by the way . . . "
Well, needless to say I changed my opinion of the situation pretty
quickly. I actually spoke a bit slower during the second half of
my presentation so the front row "twitterer" could keep up with
me. Since my talk was on social networking for small business, I
even told the audience what the woman in front was doing, and it turned
out there were two other people in the crowd who were posting their
"real time" reactions to their presentation on their blogs.
At first I was flattered as heck - these people were making me an
Internet star! But on the plane going back to New York the next
day, another thought occurred to me: these people - especially
the front row Twitterer - were copying my PowerPoint slides and putting
my whole presentation up on the Internet - 140 characters at a time -
without my permission. If anyone rips off one of my presentations
and posts it on their Website (it does happen from time to time), I
send them a nasty letter accusing them of copyright infringement and
insisting they take my content down to avoid being sued. How did
that differ than what the Twitterer was doing? Unfortunately, I
didn't get her Twitter name. Darn.
When "tweeting", you are publishing content on the Web just the same as
you would on a blog or Website, only shorter, and the same rules apply:
- do not copy someone else's
content without their approval - even though virtually all "tweets" are
only a few words and, taken individually, probably would be considered
"fair use" under the copyright laws, a string of "tweets" copying
someone else's material probably would be lumped together as a single
communication so the length limits wouldn't apply;
- don't make any statement of
fact about another person in a "tweet", especially one that puts them
in a negative or embarrassing light, unless you know it's 100% true and
can prove it in court;
- don't post anything about
yourself on the site that you wouldn't want a total stranger reading
1,000 years from now.
Cliff Ennico (cennico@legalcareer.com)
is a syndicated columnist, author and former host of the PBS television
series 'Money Hunt'. This column is no substitute for legal, tax or
financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified
professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff
Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our
Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2009 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE,
INC. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.
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