The service has finally started to respond to takedown requests from users complaining their jokes have been shared by others as their own. So, now some messages are replaced with copyright notices saying “tweet withheld”. The blocked tweets redirect users to a link to Twitter’s policy on DMCA takedown requests.

The policy explains that the company promises to respond to reports of alleged copyright infringement, including allegations concerning the illegal use of a copyrighted image or video uploaded through Twitter’s media hosting services, or tweets containing links to allegedly infringing content. According to rules, users subject to DMCA takedown notices have ten days to appeal.

In the United States, the legislation is assessed on central 4 tenets comprising fair use: purpose and character of use, nature of the content, amount and substantiality of the used portion, and effect of the use on the potential market. On its part, Twitter promised to make a “good faith effort” to contact users whose content is blocked. It is also known that the DMCA notices will be passed on to ChillingEffects.com, a database of Internet removal requests.

Apparently, Twitter’s policy of removing tweets due to DMCA requests is a new development, as users have never been referred to as “original authors” and “copyright holders” before, and no tweets were removed for this reason. The story began with one freelance writer who filed a DMCA takedown request after the content of her tweet was taken without credit. She explained to the company that as a freelance writer she makes living writing jokes, which are therefore her intellectual property.

It should be said that many Twitter accounts that have thousands of followers comprise solely of someone else’s jokes and media. Such accounts join together to create businesses, and their operators are making money. Such content theft has been happening since the dawn of Twitter – even a minister from South Carolina became famous for his witty tweets lifted from famous comedians. Moreover, even some comedians themselves have been found to have copied.

Twitter users had mixed reaction to Twitter’s new policy: many of them responded with jokes (and who knows, how many of them are lifted).