Twitter assures users' ownership of content

“Twitter is allowed to 'use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute' your tweets because that's what we do. However, they are your tweets and they belong to you," stated Twitter co-founder Biz Stone in a blog post Thursday announcing the modifications.

The revised terms also stated that end users authorize Twitter to make content available to external applications through Twitter API (application programming interface). However, the company is working on guidelines for proper use of API.

The guidelines would require the external applications to recognize the authors of "tweets", uphold the integrity of the content and seek consent to send messages on behalf of the users or turn their tweets into a commercial product, like a poster.

Terms revised just a little to avoid controversies
The revised terms have not been changed much as Twitter has just translated some of the jargons into easy language to avoid giving users the wrong impression about what was happening.

Twitter's terms of service from October 2007 state, "We claim no intellectual property rights over the material you provide to the Twitter service. Your profile and materials uploaded remain yours."

It seems that the company, like Facebook, wants to avoid any controversy over the question of who owns the content people post to social media and social-networking sites. Recently, Facebook had landed in hot soup after it revised its terms of service that gave the impression that Facebook might claim ownership of content posted on its Web site.

"The revisions [of Twitter's Terms of Service] more appropriately reflect the nature of Twitter and convey key issues such as ownership," said Stone in a blog post.

Twitter open to advertising opportunities
While the company has assured that users own their tweets, it is leaving "the door open for advertising" opportunities to ramp up efforts to monetize its popular site.

"Twitter and its third party providers and partners may place such advertising ... in connection with the display of content or information from the services whether submitted by you or others," the new terms read.

Twitter has witnessed explosive growth over the years. According to comScore, unique visitors to Twitter's site worldwide were 44.5 million in June, up 15-fold year-over-year.

Some analysts have raised doubts over the success of advertising on social networking site, arguing that companies are reluctant to place their brands amid unpredictable, and potentially offensive, user-generated content.

But other analysts have asserted that users spend a lot of time on social networking sites and it is a good platform to promote brands, especially if preferences are tracked.

The company has kept its advertising clause open-ended, and said it was subject to change.