The question of the day seems to be "Are tweets subject to copyright?" There have been a number of posts around the blogosphere grappling with this concept and no clear consensus has emerged. You might well ask "does it matter?" I mean can you really write anything in 140 characters that someone else would even want to plagiarize? I think it becomes more significant when these seemingly off-the-cuff remarks get published beyond the confines of twitter. For instance, Stephen Fry may, or may not, now be regretting his tweet that Jade Goody was like "a kind of Princess Di from the wrong side of the tracks" but once that sort of comment is out there it is very difficult to control. And don't be surprised if you see more and more of this sort of lazy journalism. And what about Facebook updates? Are these private mesages between friends where you have a reasonable expectation of privacy, or are they public broadcasts that can be freely repeated in the media?

Another area of law that is about to embrace twitter is that of libel after Courtney Love allegedly posted messages accusing her former fashion designer, Dawn Simorangkir, of being a "nasty, lying, hosebag thief"; having "a history of dealing cocaine"; having "lost all custody of her child"; and, being guilty of "assault and burglary". Not surprisingly Simorangkir has lodged a libel claim in the Los Angeles Superior Court seeking punitive damages, arguing that the comments have destroyed her reputation and her business. Court papers laying out the claim state: "Whether caused by drug-induced psychosis, a warped understanding of reality, or the belief that money and fame allow her to disregard the law, Love has embarked on what is nothing short of an obsessive and delusional crusade to destroy Simorangkir's reputation and her livelihood."

I think the one thing we can all be sure of is that this wont be the last time that twittering ends up in a court case.