Yesterday I started seeing buzz about a newly launched Twitter-related website called TwitShirt. I looked over the site and, beside some early database issues (due to traffic I assume), I thought it was a cool concept. I like Twitter. I like shirts. I like getting paid. I also used to work at PayPal so I liked the fact they were using it as their payment platform. Then I went on my merry little way (and even gave them a little shoutout).
A few minutes later I saw this post from @camh where he pretty much bashed the makers in a bad form, finger-wagging kind of way and it made me re-think the whole Twitshirt concept. Maybe it is rather shitty that Twitshirt has an opt-out button…but no opt-in option. It seems to assume that every member of Twitter has been in the t-shirt slogan making business for 3 years and now it’s time to cash in. Also, the concept of Twitter posts being the property of the author or creative commons has been talked about recently but I think it is still somewhat of an unknown.
However, it may be good to cover your ass, as even Twitter’s Terms state :
We encourage users to contribute their creations to the public domain or consider progressive licensing terms.
I think the main thing that surprised me about this whole scenerio was @camh’s honesty. I love the fact that he called Twitshirt out about this because Opt In and Opt Out has been something of a sore subject lately anyway.
With Twitter being such an advocate of people using their platform in inventive ways, it begs the questions : What is fair? What is a violation? Am I going to have to watch my radar for other sites that pop up in the future and Opt Out of each one I can’t get behind?
What do you think about Twitter and Creative Commons? Did you Opt Out of Twitshirt or add your username to TweetCC and if so, why?
UPDATE : Well, looks like the community has spoken and TwitShirt is listening.