Picture posting service Twitpic has apologised for seeming to claim copyright on every image users upload.
A row blew up over photographs on Twitpic following changes made to the service's terms on 10 May.
Many users cancelled their Twitpic accounts because the changes implied that the site was claiming the right to sell pictures without permission.
Twitpic defended itself and said the new rules were intended to protect users' photos from abuse by the media.
Twitpic has just updated its terms of service and issued a statement clarifying some copyright and intellectual property issues for its users.
Specifically, the company addresses the matter of ownership: Who owns a user’s Twitpics? The user? Twitpic? The Internet at large? Anyone who chooses to download the images?
In a brief post, Twitpic founder Noah Everett reassured his users that each person actually does own and hold rights to all images he or she posts to Twitpic. This is the same policy Facebook and most other mainstream social media applications have with regard to ownership of online content.
“Our goal with Twitpic from the beginning has been to create the best way to share your photos and videos on Twitter and to always keep our user’s best interests at the forefront,” Everett writes. “You, the user, retain all copyrights to your photos [and] videos.”
