Twitter is Removing Stolen Jokes From Timelines Under DMCA

[engine]

Clearly, there's been a problem with automated systems redistributing jokes. Not sure if it's going to clear up those that just RT - i wouldn't have thought so as it's attributing the tweet to the originator.

A number of tweets have been deleted on copyright grounds for apparently stealing a bad joke. Twitter is Removing Stolen Jokes From Timelines Under DMCA [theverge.com]

Twitter, like many companies that host content from users, has an entire system for handling claims of copyright infringement. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Twitter is provided "safe harbor" from copyright claims so long as it does not try to protect infringing material. Typically, claims concern embedded media like photos and videos, or they're for tweets that link to other websites that are illegally hosting copyrighted material, like movies. It's rarer for a DMCA request to involve the actual text of a 140-character tweet.

[lucy24]

It's rarer for a DMCA request to involve the actual text of a 140-character tweet.

In the US, a big aspect of "fair use" is the amount of quoted material as a proportion of the entire work. A funny 140-character line from a novel is fine; a 140-character one-liner in isolation is not-so-fine, because it's essentially 100% of the original work.

I think a lot of people-- I mean humans, not copyright lawyers-- don't even realize that a joke is copyrightable.

[graeme_p]

I think humans realise that jokes should not be covered by copyright. Jokes have always been freely repeated.

[tangor]

This is one of those chilling effects, that will fail.

See our recent [webmasterworld.com...]

What we are seeing is lawyers bottom feeding for dollars... and in most cases damn few dollars!

[tangor]

Meant to add: Twitter as a lawyer's paradise has become more of a twit.... er, 140 character... character?

[lucy24]

Jokes have always been freely repeated.

Professional comedians take their material very, very seriously.

[graeme_p]

Repeating a single joke is not the same as say another comedian repeating a substantial portion of a routine, which a reasonable person would expect to be covered by copyright.

a 140-character one-liner in isolation is not-so-fine, because it's essentially 100% of the original work.

Not necessarily: one liners, especially those originated by professionals, are often of a larger work: a comedians routine, or a book, or a play, or something. Standalone jokes are often of anonymous origin or a variation on something that is.