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Disney claims anyone using a Twitter hashtag is agreeing to their terms of use

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Re: Disney claims anyone using a Twitter hashtag is agreeing to their terms of use

#301

Post by taneq »

chrisseaton wrote: post #184
amelius wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of a book called "numerical recipes in C", full of algorithms that were very useful except you couldn't really use them because the authors protected their use with a very restrictive license.

Did you know that you can't use copyright to protect an algorithm?

As mentioned above, some algorithms are so simple that there's only one canonical way to write them. (Take 'looping through an array' for example - in each language there's generally one canonical way to do it.) You could argue that the text of that canonical way is copyrightable.

(It's similar to the early days of heat engines, where a guy called James Pickard managed to patent the crank, preventing other engine manufacturers from using cranks and forcing them to use a sun-and-planet gear arrangement instead: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_and_planet_gear )

Re: Disney claims anyone using a Twitter hashtag is agreeing to their terms of use

#302

Post by Danieru »

castratikron wrote: post #300
amelius wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of a book called "numerical recipes in C", full of algorithms that were very useful except you couldn't really use them because the authors protected their use with a very restrictive license.

I started out a project by copying RK4 verbatim. Over several months it morphed and took on a life of its own as I integrated it into other parts of the program and smoothed out the inefficiencies. At what point does it stop being a derivative work I wonder?

Never. Derivation is not a property which can be "lost". Deriving more things through the process of derivation at not point stops the derivation connection.

You should not include code at any point if you do not have the proper license for it. The copyright pollution spreads and any attempt to "clean room it" would be more expensive than re-writing from scratch.

Re: Disney claims anyone using a Twitter hashtag is agreeing to their terms of use

#303

Post by Chozenlaruso »

HenryBemis wrote: post #245
henrikschroder wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. From their terms of use: "Disney DTC LLC and/or its affiliates and subsidiaries (collectively, “Disney” “we” or “us”) are pleased to provide to you certain websites, software, applications, content, products, and services (“Disney Products” and “Products”), which may be branded Disney, ABC, ESPN, Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm, FX, Fox Searchlight, 20th Century Fox, National Geographic, or another brand owned or licen…

Did Twitter put them back to their place or they don't want to lose the ad revenue and let the muggles fight them off?

Jack Dorsey was on the Disney Board until 2018, so probably not.

Re: Disney claims anyone using a Twitter hashtag is agreeing to their terms of use

#304

Post by henryfjordan »

snickerbockers wrote: post #280
henryfjordan wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, why wouldn't you be able to form a contract through tweets? You can form a contract through any medium you want, especially just to give permission to Disney to use your tweet. I don't think Disney is setting any precedent or anything else weird by saying "send us messages you want us to publish, by the way here are the specific terms we want to use" on Twitter, they've been doing that for a long time before…

Disney probably does have implicit permission from anybody who tags them and uses that hashtag to use their quotes for a social media project, since Twitter is generally considered to be a forum for public discourse. This might also be enshrined in Twitter's ToS. That's not the problem. The problem is that they claim that anybody who tweets at them and uses their hashtag is entering into a contract agreement with the…

Unilateral contracts are a thing, when one party makes an offer that is only accepted by performance. As the offeror, Disney can invite acceptance of their contract however they want, including via replying to their tweet with a special hashtag.

They made the requirements pretty clear and stringent enough that I very much doubt anyone is at risk of accidentally entering into that contract, but if that does happen, then the contract would be null. I just don't see that happening though.

Re: Disney claims anyone using a Twitter hashtag is agreeing to their terms of use

#305

Post by smnrchrds »

FalconSensei wrote: post #291
chrisseaton wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can only copyright the text of the source code, as if it was literature. Write your own source code to implement the same algorithm using the same efficient techniques, and you're fine (as long as it isn't patented.)

so... rename the variables?

On a more serious note, this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design

Re: Disney claims anyone using a Twitter hashtag is agreeing to their terms of use

#306

Post by Waterluvian »

OrangeMango wrote: post #40

At a rummage sale a few years ago, I bought a book published by Disney in the 1960s or 1970s which had instructions on how to make Mickey Mouse puppets. It also said to "have fun" making them. Selling things for a profit is a lot of fun. As far as I'm concerned, I now have a perpetual, transferable license to make and sell Mickey Mouse puppets. I even asked a lawyer.

You could have a written consent from Walt. All that actually matters is your appetite to deal with an exhausting legal battle.

Re: Disney claims anyone using a Twitter hashtag is agreeing to their terms of use

#307

Post by rurban »

OOPMan wrote: post #249
SteveNuts wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would happen if I patented "left pad" in a bunch of languages?

The patent would get thrown out on review

Not if you avoid the common names and invent a new name for it. Nowadays they are just doing some searches and patent granted.

Re: Disney claims anyone using a Twitter hashtag is agreeing to their terms of use

#308

Post by tomerv »

kayodelycaon wrote: post #31
mangoman wrote: post #17

I think the value of hiring more experienced folks to run social media (i.e. not an intern, someone with any amount of experience) is that they can actually point out how ridiculous this will come off, and argue against this type of tweet. It really doesn't take that much corporate self awareness to see how bad it looks to try to force TOS on free speech on a public forum.

> It really doesn't take that much corporate self awareness I think you underestimate how well anyone in management actually understands this. One job had me constantly pushing back on three or more paragraphs of legal text in the damndest of places. In one case, the legal text was larger than the form itself to say "we need your email to contact you with changes related to your account". Every time I contacted our c…

Seems to me like you're proving GP's point: you had the experience and knowledge to push back against the default legal process. A less experienced person might not have done it.

Re: Disney claims anyone using a Twitter hashtag is agreeing to their terms of use

#309

Post by dang »

exolymph wrote: post #187
colejohnson66 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t be snarky. Anyways, this is from Twitters TOS[0 §5]: > You retain your rights to any Content you submit, post or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non­exclusive, royalty­free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Con…

If you can't be snarky to people making wildly incorrect claims with utter confidence, what is the point of the internet?

Your comment didn't seem so snarky to me but (as you probably know) the idea here is to try to swim against the internet currents at least a little.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

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