This article is more than 1 year old

Twitter will delete jokes after a DMCA takedown – but NOT my photos, fumes angry snapper

Shutterbug sues social network

A photographer is suing Twitter, claiming it refused to remove unauthorized copies of her copyrighted snaps from its social network.

Kristen Pierson has filed a copyright-infringement complaint [PDF] against Twitter in the Los Angeles District Court, alleging the website has ignored her request to take down images she snapped of musician Herman Li.

According to Pierson's complaint, her pic of Li was only available to paying publications. Pierson, who licenses her photos to publishers to make a living, said her pictures were being freely passed around Twitter without permission.

When she sent a takedown demand under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to Twitter to have the images pulled, the request was ignored, and the unauthorized copies remained on the site, Pierson's lawyers claim.

"Twitter had actual knowledge of the infringing uses," the complaint reads. "Pierson provided notice to Twitter in compliance with the DMCA, and Twitter failed to expeditiously disable access to or remove the infringing uses."

Now Pierson is seeking to take the case to a jury trial and, she hopes, an injunction calling for removal of the photos and a payout of damages.

"Twitter directly infringed Pierson's copyrights by continuing to allow public access to the infringing uses on Twitter's server or on servers controlled by Twitter, or through access controlled by Twitter to servers controlled by third parties," Pierson's lawyers claim.

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment on the filing.

Meanwhile, it seems some people are having success in getting copyrighted content removed from Twitter via DMCA takedowns. Plagiarized jokes are being pulled down from the network following copyright-infringement complaints from comedians, who say that others are retweeting and taking credit for their one-liners.

Among those alleged joke thieves is talk show host Conan O'Brien, who has been accused of lifting gags from the Twitter account of Robert "Alex" Kaseberg without attribution. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like