Entertainment company Disney was criticized on Twitter after trying to claim media ownership of popular hashtag "#MayThe4th".
Disney Plus, the conglomerate’s streaming service, encouraged fans on Twitter to share their favorite Star Wars memories using the hashtag #MayThe4th but followed it up with a legal warning that any user who used the hashtag was agreeing to Disney's terms and letting it use their content.
The Star Wars hashtag
The popular hashtag is a play on the popular line from the Star Wars franchise, which states: “May the force be with you”. It has been used by numerous fans over the years to commemorate the made-up fan holiday dedicated to the film series.
Disney tweeted: “Reply with your favorite #Star Wars memory and you may see it somewhere special #MayThe4th. By sharing your message with us during #MayThe4th, you agree to our use of the message and your account name in all media and our terms of use.”
Many Star Wars fans criticized Disney over its tweet.
One user replied: “You can't just scream a terms of service agreement into the void and then assume anyone who does something falling in line has seen it and agreed.”
“By having my tweet in your thread you hereby waive all your copyright to the public domain,” another user said.
After several protests from fans and widespread mockery of the announcement, Disney decided to backtrack and later added that the wording applied only to specific tweets in the original thread.
Disney argued: “The above legal language applies ONLY to replies to this tweet using #MayThe4th and mentioning @DisneyPlus. These replies may appear in something special on May the 4th!”
According to Aaron Wood, IP lawyer at Keystone Law, it would be unlikely for Disney's tweet to have been seen by everyone who used the hashtag due to its popularity.
Wood said: "It is a little risky and presumptuous that all tweets copying them in with the hashtag will have read their terms, or know about them.”
Moreover, based on Twitter’s policy, users own the unique content they post on the social media service.
"A user can give permission to someone else to use their tweet. However, Disney’s risk is whether users who simply use the hashtag are really are giving them that permission,” Wood pointed out.
Disney Plus hits 50 million subscribers
On April 8, Disney announced that its Disney Plus or Disney+ video service has reached over 50 million subscribers. This was twice the 26.5 million users the company announced in its Q1 earnings report.
Then-chief executive officer (CEO) Bob Iger noted that around 20% of those subscribers were from a distribution partnership with Verizon as the telecoms company offered a Disney+ subscription for free to some Verizon customers for a year.
Following the announcement of the 50 million milestone, shares of Disney surged by as much as 7% in after-hours trading.
Disney also mentioned that it has recently launched the service in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Switzerland, with the most recent launch of Disney Plus in India.
