Twitpic Changes Reveal Conflict As Users, Journalists, Photo Sharing Services Have Competing Goals

The popular photo-sharing service Twitpic this month took more control over the photos that millions of Twitter users upload to its site each month.

Although it provoked an outcry from people who said Twitpic was infringing on users' copyright, the changes highlight conflicts between users, professional journalists and online sharing services in a muddled system of online news and information.

"We're at a stage where this conversation is inevitable," said David Ardia, director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard University. "We're no longer puzzling over whether people will produce this work - we know they do and they have been - we're now at a stage where we're asking what is the right way for a business built on that type of work to generate revenue and potentially share that revenue with those that produce the work."

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