I think we will see this unfold over the next few years, as more and more companies leverage social networking as part of their overall marketing efforts. One thing is for sure… it should be interesting. :)

@steveplunkett, while you are right Twitter could go away tomorrow and no one could stop it. The real question for the article was who could continue to control the account? The employee or the employer?

a. social media is NOT new.. just the words used to describe the activity, an account on someone else BBS, even an old AOL chat account was owned by AOL, even if you were paying 14.95/month for 2600bps access
or IRC chat account or ANYTHING ON SOMEONE ELSES SERVERS. And yes there was AOL accounts created in a companies NAME that participated in chat for pay.. posted bulletins, had fans sing up to buddy lists, etc.. when i worked for AOL doing “chat room moderation” i had an account setup with a special username by AOL, when i left, they kept that account and someone else cahtted as that account.

If everyone and their dog all left twitter and joined the same AOL channel on the same network, it would be just like twitter.. less functionality.. but pretty much the same stream..

Who owned my everquest account? SONY!!!
yes i paid monthly, yes i have intellecual property under the name “paisley amoeba” but those rights DID NOT extend to Everquest, unless someone else had used it and i had sued Sony for using a trademarked term. The usernames on everquest were coded to not allow a copyrighted term for a user account.

B. who owns your twitter account?
TWITTER..
there is no payment for services rendered, no agreed upon SLA, hence no compensation for ownership. If twitter goes away tomorrow, you don’t got jack… the money the client paid you to setup the account, etc.. does NOT matter.. Twitter owns EVERYTHING on your twitter account. All of these may have your companies name but the company DOES NOT OWN THEM.. your digg account, your stumbleuon account, your facebook account.. ALL OWNED by the website owners. not the individual.

C. Legal things about twitter.. here’s the problem with getting legal advice from someone who “is learning Social Media” they haven’t been in court on internet (social media) issues there is no “stare decisis” they can pull from. The guy seems nice enough to help you out but i didn’t see anything legal other than civil “intent” and some good “best practices” from a corporate perspective.

LEGALLY, the main factors are:

1. is the name copyrighted?
2. is someone not affiliated with the company using an account with a copyrighted term?
3. unless it’s YOUR personal social network, you own nothing. not even the intellectual property of your own tweets. (unless of course u are using a TM or © term in a tweet), then Twitter does NOT supercede your IP rights.

D. Copyright. trademarks, etc..
Google owns the TM %reg; etc.. for “google” therefore they OWN THE RIGHTS to ANYONE using that trademarked/registered term. Does that mean they own the account..
NO!!!!!!!!! again.. Twitter owns the account.
Can google sue someone for using it w/o their permission? YES!

E. If an employee sets up the twitter account while working for Google in most states that is a work product and owned by the company if it is setup under a Google product name, trademarked/copyrighted term, etc.. if you create an account under a companies name and get paid for it.. that is a service you have provided, but still for someone else.
(this is where your legal advice above is good.. as to who does what)

F. if @mattcutts sets up his account under his name, google can’t tweet as @mattcutts unless HE releases his claim to his name or he lets them. So if it’s YOUR name.. it’s YOUR intellectual property, however again.. TWITTER OWNS the account.

We have @MCCPR at my office, i set it up.. 3 people have used the account, only the person whose job it is to tweet for us uses that account but after that person left, someone else would use it.

my account @steveplunkett is mine. yes i try and behave because i represent my company on twitter. but if i left, i would simply change my employer and move on. of course if Twitter still existed then.

Do you think you own your own domain? nope.. you lease it thru a leasing agency called a “registrar” on a yearly basis.

Summary: unless we are talking about a companies own social network on servers they own.. they own NOTHING.