Are tweets or Instagram posts copyrighted?
<p>There are accounts on Twitter and Instagram that make money by posting sponsored content. Let's say another account does the same thing, but it just copies the tweets/posts from the more popular accounts. Would the more popular account have a case if it were to sue the account copying its content? The smaller account being run from America.</p>

<p>Copyright subsists in "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression..." <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/102" rel="nofollow">17 USC §102</a></p>

<p>Originality requires "independent creation plus a modicum of creativity". <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/499/340/case.html" rel="nofollow">Feist Pubs., Inc. v. Rural Tel. Svc. Co., Inc.</a> 499 U.S. 340 (1991)</p>

<p>The creator of a work generally owns the copyright to that work. <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/201" rel="nofollow">17 USC §201</a></p>

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/tos?lang=en#yourrights" rel="nofollow">Twitter's Terms of Service</a> say:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><strong>You retain your rights to any Content you submit</strong>, post or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, <strong>you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content</strong> in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed).</p>
</blockquote>

<p>So, you maintain the copyright ownership, and you grant Twitter a licence to do whatever Twitter wants with that work. This allows Twitter to show your tweet around its network and to allow for re-tweeting etc. (Although, it could have done those things with a less permissive licence.) You are not giving other users that licence.</p>

copyright internet intellectual-property