As someone who occasionally makes jokes on the website Twitter dot com, I'm an avid user of the Twitter search function (gotta make sure nobody else has made that joke, you know?). Social media plagiarism is a serious offense, fam. Just ask Conan O'Brien, who is facing a lawsuit from a man named Robert Kaseberg on copyright violation. Kaseberg (a San Diego resident) says the talk show host straight-up lifted several of his funny tweets for monologue purposes.
See, for example, Kaseberg's tweet (Jan. 14): "A Delta flight this week took off from Cleveland to New York with just two passengers. And they fought over control of the armrest the entire flight."
And O'Brien's joke later that day:
The other jokes he accuses O'Brien of plagiarizing are about Tom Brady, Caitlyn Jenner, and the Washington Monument. "We at Conaco firmly believe there is no merit to this lawsuit," a Conan production company rep told The Hollywood Reporter. It's hard to say whether O'Brien or a writer on the staff did lift the joke, or if this is all an eerie coincidence. People often do think of the same joke, so...
Either way, Twitter is now allowing users to file Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaints for joke theft. After a complaint has been filed, the accused user then get 10 days to file a counter notice.
Or, you know, take the Kaseberg route and ask for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Read the full complaint here.
