Yesterday, we posted an article about Dean Collins, an Australian expat in New York who is claiming to be sued by Twitter for his application TwitterButler.
The good people at Mashable, one of the internet’s most popular technology news websites, have also been tracking this case.
According to Mashable journalist Pete Cashmere:
The developer of MyTwitterButler, a $10 auto-follow application for Twitter (eg. follow thousands of people on Twitter so they follow you back), is claiming today he’s been “sued” by Twitter.
It’s not true: the letter he published under the title “I’m Being Sued by Twitter!!” is a cease and desist asking him to stop breaking the Twitter TOS (auto-follow is not permitted, nor is creating an app to auto-follow, since the only real use case is to spam) and to stop using “Twitter” in his product name and domain name due to confusion with Twitter’s trademark.
He goes on to say:
Twitter has typically turned a blind eye to Twitterholic, Twittercounter and hundreds of legitimate Twitter applications using the Twitter name. Going after these legitimate applications would create bad PR, even though Twitter is indeed obligated to defend its trademark or risk losing it.
In fact, Twitter has won plaudits for allowing its ecosystem to blossom in this way. And after filing to trademark the word “Tweet”, the company was very clear that it would not be chasing down app makers who used the word in their names. On the subject of the Twitter trademark itself, Biz Stone wrote:
“Regarding the use of the word Twitter in projects, we are a bit more wary although there are some exceptions here as well. After all, Twitter is the name of our service and our company so the potential for confusion is much higher. When folks ask us about naming their application with “Twitter” we generally respond by suggesting more original branding for their project. This avoids potential confusion down the line.”
It seems increasingly clear where the line is drawn: creating spammy apps may not go down well, while those creating new applications would be best to use something more novel than “Twitter (Twitter)” in the app name.
While we initially thought TwitterButler’s email might raise the ire of API developers, it has instead been the cause of multiple discussions throughout the web on what constitutes spam on Twitter.
Many of the views can be summed up by this comment, also on Mashable:
“As much as I hate the idea of auto-follows, I have to agree with Dean – the developer. *IF* the Twitter APIs allow this to be done, then Twitter can’t blame him, or others, for doing it. If Twitter thinks it’s a bad idea, then they should just turn it off for everyone and not use scare tactics to harass a few select developers.”
And this passionate comment from a Google Groups thread:
“…this whole notion that someone can spam one via DMs is absolutely bloody bullshit. By virtue of how Twitter works, when you follow someone, you grant that person permission to DM you. They can send you the biggest load of crap, they are not spamming you. You opted in to receive DMs from them. Your only recourse is to unfollow them, and thereby remove the permission you granted them.”
In other words, is it wrong to follow someone? If no, then is it wrong to create an application that automates following?
When does someone following you become spam?
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James Tuckerman Reply:
August 20th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
I’ve begun to devise my own techniques for only following the right kind of people and finding only the right kind of people to follow me – as an individual and a business. Of course, I’ll post about it shortly (wearing ed’s hat). I’m a firm believe that Twitter will correct itself (before it eats itself). Watch this space. JT
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