A new Twitter account @PlagiarismBad is removing people’s tweets if it catches you stealing other user’s jokes.
The account is tracking people who instead of retweeting a joke with credit, simply copy and paste the joke and claim it as their own. The offending tweet is not deleted, but the 140 character tweet is replaced with a link to Twitter’s Copyright and DMCA policy:
BREAKING NEWS: Twitter is hiding tweets reported stolen. And it’s referring to the author as a “copyright holder” pic.twitter.com/DkteWMZ7zg
— Plagiarism Is Bad (@PlagiarismBad) July 25, 2015
The Twitter copyright crackdown follows after an LA freelance writer Olga Lexell complained that her jokes were intellectual property and were being stolen by people.
Lexell’s original tweet was “saw someone spill their high end juice cleanse all over the sidewalk and now I know god is on my side”.
If you alert the @PlagiarismBad account to another account stealing your tweet, the thieves will be added to a public Tweet Thieves Plagarists list. Currently there are 4,213 accounts on that list.
The account is also super sassy with its replies to people who complain:
Twittter for one which forbids stealing tweets in its Terms of Service. If you don’t agree with those you should man up & get off the site.
— Plagiarism Is Bad (@PlagiarismBad) July 26, 2015
“Please remember that not all opinions have merit” could apply equally well to some of the ones we’ve heard lately https://t.co/eMK0W2fj3C
— Plagiarism Is Bad (@PlagiarismBad) July 26, 2015
All plagiarism is bad. People shouldn’t steal music. And people shouldn’t steal tweets. Even if they are famous. https://t.co/GQgNjpr0rM
— Plagiarism Is Bad (@PlagiarismBad) July 26, 2015
Trending on @twitter isn’t exactly an honor to aspire to @ChrisBrewington. Just ask Bill Cosby, Chris Brown, Hulk Hogan…
— Plagiarism Is Bad (@PlagiarismBad) July 26, 2015
So the lesson is retweet away, but don’t copy and paste without credit.
