I'm Being Sued by Twitter!!           - Tue Aug 11th

I received this email 30 minutes ago from Twitters Lawyers stating that Twitter inc is suing me??

Basically they feel that my application - www.MyTwitterButler.com breaks the law through the following;

1/ That anyone using the API to auto follow people are breaching the TOS??

2/ That no one can use the word “Twitter” in their domain

3/ That somehow people might be confused my application is related to Twitter inc even though every page is labeled

“Copyright 2009 © MyTwitterButler - Not related in anyway to Twitter Inc, if I owned Twitter would i be spending my time building this app??

Is this the end for Twitter 3^rd party developers?

Have they forgotten that it was people like me who saw a need and built an application using the publicly defined Twitter API to add value to the Twitter ecosystem?

I have asked Twitters lawyers for a conference call tomorrow to clear up ‘WHY’ they feel anyone using the twitter API to auto follow people is an illegal act and will be looking forward to their answers about ‘WHY’ the twitter API was built in the first place if they want to sue people for using it.
 

Regards,
Dean Collins
dean@MyTwitterButler.com
+1-212-203-4357   New York
+61-2-9016-5642   (Sydney in-dial).
+44-20-3129-6001 (London in-dial).

I'm perplexed by Twitters lawyers    - Thur Aug 13th

So I've just completed the 2nd conference call with Twitters Lawyers in as many days - basically my position is that the MyTwitterButler application follows the limits set by Twitters API.

Their claim is that the API isn't meant to be used by end users and that it's too powerful to be used by thousands of end users (my paraphrasing).

Whilst I've offered to change the domain to www.MyTweetButler.com  I will not comply with their demand that I stop selling the software unless they can offer me a reason as to why it's detrimental to Twitter or to the user community.

Does Twitter know what their lawyers are doing?  
- Wed Aug 19th

I've just been told by Twitters Lawyers that contrary to Biz Stones blog post of July 1st 2009  Twitter inc has demanded I not call the application www.MyTweetButler.com either.

Interesting considering it was an end user who came up with the term "Tweet" and not Twitter inc.

They are also still telling me I have to comply with their demand that I stop selling the software and destroy the source code as it's giving twitter users who use my software an unfair advantage.

Now What?

Well as you can see I've rebranded the application and registered a new domain www.MyPostButler.com

I've also added a new kick butt feature that allows you to "Bulk UnFollow" users which makes the application even more useful, all for still the same price of $10.

Twitter's lawyers have stopped returning my phone calls and emails and looks like they have given up.

I'm going to continue to help out Twitter users by selling this API software for $10 for as long as the API keeps working for ordinary people like you and me and not just restricted to companies who want you to pay monthly fees for their apps.

You can continue to buy MyPostButler for only $10 and get 20,000 api calls an hour by registering your application on the Twitter whitelist.