Twitter has modified the terms of service that govern the proper user of the microblogging and social-networking site to state unequivocally that messages posted belong to their authors and not to the company.

"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," wrote Twitter co-founder Biz Stone in a blog post Thursday announcing the modifications.

There has been controversy over the question of who owns the messages, photos, videos and other material that people post to social media and social-networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. For example, Google and Facebook got into hot water when critics complained about what they perceived as terms of service that claimed ownership of the data end users store in Google Apps and Facebook profiles.

More: http://computerworld.com/s/article/9137886/