Twitter cracks down on accounts stealing jokes

New York: If someone has been shamelessly tweeting your jokes or observations as their own without giving you due credit, that would stop now. Twitter is cracking down on people who don't re-tweet a joke with credit but take the easy way out and simply copy and paste a joke as if it is their own.

The crackdown follows a complaint by Los Angeles-based freelance writer Olga Lexell, who took the argument to Twitter that her tweeted jokes were her intellectual property, media reports said. She added that most of the accounts that were reusing her tweets without accreditation were "spam accounts that repost tons of other people's jokes every day.

" For many, especially those who make a living by writing, the move is good news that has been a long time coming. The @PlagiarismBad Twitter account has its own name-and-shame policy for dealing with Twitter thieves. If you alert them to your tweet being stolen, the thief will be added to the list Tweet Thieves Plagiarists.

There are 4212 Twitter accounts on that list. Chris Brewington, the singer for the band Consider Me Dead, is a high-profile tweeter who has found himself on the @PlagiarismBad naughty list.