Does it feel like your X account belongs to you and you can do whatever you want with it? That’s not true, according to a new court filing from the social media company formerly known as Twitter. It’s an argument that X is making in order to throw a wrench in The Onion’s recent purchase of InfoWars, the conspiracy theory media company run by Alex Jones. And it’s a great reminder that you don’t actually own what you think you own in the digital age.

  • Hawke@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    You do have some control, in the form of copyright. Also the analogy doesn’t hold up well since you’re not using their “pen” and they only let you reach inside through the window. And the audience is outside the house.

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      And to continue that analogy- Twitter didn’t assign the name, the user created it so they hold copyright on the name.

    • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
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      14 hours ago

      Except when you enter the home, you accepted the TOS that transfers copyright to the owner of the home.

      • Hawke@lemmy.world
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        14 hours ago

        Nope.

        as a user, “you retain your rights to any Content you submit, post or display on or through the Services. What’s yours is yours you own your Content (and your photos and videos are part of the Content),” although you also grant Twitter a license to use the content, which authorizes it “to make your Content available to the rest of the world and to let others do the same.” Based on this language, other twitter users are also licensed to copy and redistribute your posts by “retweeting” them.

        https://copyrightalliance.org/faqs/tweets-protected-copyright/

        • JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          Really ? I think you’ll find that clause means you do not own copyright to anything you post on X.

          • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            Really? How do you get that from “you retain your rights and give Twitter a license to use your content”? Retaining rights literally means not giving them up.

        • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
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          13 hours ago

          Congratulations on reading the twitter TOS. Now tell me if it is legal for a company to lay claim on copyright via a TOS.

            • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
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              13 hours ago

              I thought we were talking about who legally can lay claim on copyrights in the hypothetically house with a whiteboard? i’m not the one lost with the program.

              • trolololol@lemmy.world
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                3 hours ago

                You see, x is the pen, Infowars is the ink and we’re the contents of the water bowl all along

                Skibidi dibidi bop