Employer owns copyright in tweets, if done for work

Who owns the copyright to your Twitter content, if you are in employment?  That’s the question we were asked this week.

Employer owns it

And the answer is: if you are tweeting for your company then the company owns it.  Just as it owns the copyright in other content you generate.  If you have a private Twitter account on which you do not generate any content about your work, then you own it.

Twitter is clear, in its Terms of Service, that responsibility and ownership of content is up to the tweeter.  But if you are tweeting as an employer of an organisation copyright law says that the content, and the list of followers, are the property of your employer.

It’s like contact lists made in employment: they are also the copyright of your employer.

Free e-learning

It may seem tough, but that’s the copyright law.  You can try Part 1 of our e-learning copyright law course for free.

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