Twitter is Not An Emergency Broadcast System
You might think that Twitter is a great way to spread important information quickly, including perhaps emergency notifications. Law.com reports today on a lawsuit from a Texas-based emergency broadcast technology company alleging that by designing its system in a way that allows Twitter to be used for emergency broadcasts, Twitter has violated the litigant's patent.
Sorry RedCross, sorry Center for Disease Control, sorry protesters in Iran - by alerting people to life and death situations over Twitter, you're party to piracy of intellectual property. You ought to be ashamed, and sign up for the services of TechRadium Inc. right away!
The Suit
TechRadium, according to Tresa Baldas on Law.com, "argues that it has patents covering the process for simultaneously notifying large numbers of people about emergencies through multiple communication gateways, such as cell phones, pagers and e-mail. The company develops and sells the technology to schools, businesses, governments and the U.S. military but not Twitter."
Twitter Could Change
Twitter co-founder Evan Williams said specifically in one of the meetings that TechCrunch posted notes from that "Twitter is not an alert system."
Those same documents made it clear that the Twitter Terms of Service are subject to extensive revision as well. It wouldn't be a surprise at all to see those Terms changed to prohibit use of Twitter for emergency broadcast purposes. Everyone would assume it's for liability concerning the verification of such emergency broadcasts, but it could put a stop to the lawsuit the company faces as well.
Emergency Broadcast Systems Are a Social Good
In the meantime, perhaps we can use Microsoft's beta emergency broadcast system Vine. Perhaps TechRadium should go sue Microsoft instead.
It's a real shame; Twitter has always seemed like it would make a good emergency broadcast system.
The logic of intellectual property really doesn't make sense here. Typically patents are said to be important because they protect the profit of innovators, giving them an incentive to innovate and the rest of us the benefits of their innovation. Emergency broadcast systems get built for reasons other than just profit, though. See the US federal government's several alert systems, for example.
For what it's worth, it sure seems like it would be a good idea if Twitter was another tool available for emergency broadcasts, among its many other uses.
You can find ReadWriteWeb on Twitter, as well as the entire RWW Team. But don't expect us to alert you to anything really important! (That might be illegal.) Please follow: Marshall Kirkpatrick, Bernard Lunn, Alex Iskold, Sarah Perez, Frederic Lardinois, Jolie Odell, Dana Oshiro, Steven Walling and Lidija Davis.
Facebook
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts
Maybe they should also sue every website owner on the planet. When CDC post 'emergency updates' on their website, they are essentially 'simultaneously notifying large numbers of people about emergencies'. :)
While I think this lawsuit and hence that company is a joke, so do I of this, your sentence:
"It's a real shame; Twitter has always seemed like it would make a good emergency broadcast system. "
You're joking right? That's like saying your ibook would make a great cloud server. Please! EBS's are highly sophisticated, are incredibly careful about uptime, and hence are very expensive. It's Corolla v Lexus.
I like Corollas and iBooks, but I know they are not heavy duty equipment. I'm a Twitter nerd, but there's no way that Twitter is or should be an EBS.
Request: Sequester the following people in a seperate, firewalled, part of the internet:
1. Patent trolls
2. Purveyors of DRM ( including the people who just came up with the CMX file format to replace MP3 )
3. The decision makers at the Apple app store
4. Any congressman who voted against Net Neutrality
...in order to hasten their extinction.
I 100% agree with this post. Everything.
Posted by: nateritter.com
|
August 11, 2009 11:34 AM
OpenIDUXsux - I wouldn't argue that Twitter should be *the* EBS, but one tool among many, as it's used now? Sure!
In Pennsylvania, I get emergency alerts through ReadyNotifyPA by Cooper Notification Roam Secure. (http://www.roamsecure.net/pressitem.php?news_id=245)
Seems like the same idea. I get countless emails (or text messages) about local road closures, flood watches, severe storm cells, even insecticide spraying.
If there's a "true emergency" I'll trust the EAS and word of mouth to spread the panic. That being said, I wish I could get my local storm warnings via Twitter instead.
I think the primary concern in any emergency should be getting the word out, as quickly as possible, by any and all channels available -- not first stopping to consider who holds a patent or which one has the most rock solid infrastructure. Twitter is just a part of the communication spectrum, like email or SMS. Should email be an EBS? Should SMS? Not exclusively.
Oh come on. You can't sue a messaging company because a large group of people suddenly started using that company's services in a way the company could never hope to control even if it felt a need to.
Besides, a patent on the idea of "distributing emergency information to a large number of people" is just plain ridiculous. How can you patent that in a world where radio, television, smoke signals and *shouting a bit* already exist? It's moronic.
Twitter has nothing to fear from this joke of a company trying to push its own products at the expense of reality.
Because it is always down? :)
Posted by: Louis Gray
|
August 11, 2009 12:07 PM
Where's the hat dude?
Posted by: Jeff Hurt
|
August 11, 2009 12:08 PM
Wow, the Internet is going in many different ways and all going down hill! Ecommunication has no bonds.Thanks for update.
Posted by: Charles Wharry
|
August 11, 2009 12:28 PM
hmm time to get my cursive back in practice, the written letter may be faster now days :) well depending on the post. haha
Posted by: Ryan Elder
|
August 11, 2009 12:42 PM
If this lawsuit goes ahead, it shows what the American Patent law is: a JOKE.
The fact that someone can patent an idea like the "simultaneously notifying large numbers of people about emergencies through multiple communication gateways, such as cell phones, pagers and e-mail" shows that either the people that made the law or the people that decided the patent are morons.
It is as simple as that. And I'm not trolling.
Let's try to make this emergency broadcast thing possible by creating one more tag.
http://www.techawe.com/2009/06/23/about-the-very-urgent-message-twitter-tag/ Don't you think ?
Well said, Carlos, but patent law isn't the only area of our legal system that is a joke.
Ours is a country where a lady can sue and be awarded $3 million because she spilled hot coffee on herself in a McDonald's drive through...
And congress can humiliate corporate America for their salaries and perques while ordering $550 million in private jets for themselves.
Reforms will never come as long as one of the major political parties remains in the pocket of the trial lawyers.
This country is so broken.
And yet it appears to still be the greatest on earth.
That's not saying much for us as a species, is it? :-)
I agree with the rest of Tom7's post but people should stop using the McDonald's case as an example of litigation excess. The woman received serious 3rd degree burns, was in the hospital for weeks and had to get her outer vag reconstructed. She was basically sitting in boiling liquid as she struggled to get out of her car. Also, McDonald's changed both the cup design and materials shortly after this very serious accident.
"That's not saying much for us as a species, is it? :-)"--Tom7
That's because your notion of "the greatest country on earth" is a myth and something we in Europe laugh at. You may believe the myth, but worldwide data says that even little Ireland is rated higher in (for example) press freedom, health care and education that you are. Get a grip, man. It's a fairytale you've been told from birth. That's all.
I'm pretty sure there is some form of "prior use" that nulls the claim of 'process for simultaneously notifying large numbers of people about emergencies through multiple communication gateways."
Sounds like more spamigation - throwing out as much litigation as possible hoping something sticks.
Twitter is Not An Emergency Broadcast System http://bit.ly/3EoTwI [from http://twitter.com/marshallk/statuses/3249762388]
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
|
August 14, 2009 1:20 AM
Pathetic
Posted by: https://login.launchpad.net/+id/KG8s3Ay
|
August 18, 2009 6:28 AM
i see.
mechanical seals
mechanical seal
mechanical sealing