united-states copyright internet
Can Meta create a Twitter clone?
<p>Meta is about to release an app called Threads that has been labeled by news sources as a Twitter rival or Twitter clone.</p>
<p>I don't know how similar Threads actually is to Twitter, but hypothetically if it were almost identical, would that be legal? More generally, can anyone just copy an existing website (without copying the code or images)? Could I make a website that lets people post pictures like Instagram but call it MyPics? How similar do two websites or apps have to be before there's a legal/copyright issue?</p>

<blockquote>
<p>More generally, can anyone just copy an existing website (without
copying the code or images)?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Could I make a website that lets people post pictures like Instagram
but call it MyPics?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>In general, copyright protects particular expressions of ideas, not higher level ideas or concepts.</p>

<p>Copyright applies to creative expressions, not abstract ideas. Copying the general  functionality of an application is not a copyright violation. Only copying the code, art assets etc. is.</p>
<p>However, under some circumstances, an idea can be <em>patented</em>. That is if that idea is a new &quot;invention&quot;. It is possible for companies like Twitter or Instagram to protect certain features of their websites they invented using patents. In fact, <a href="https://patents.justia.com/company/twitter" rel="noreferrer">Twitter does that</a>. But patents have some limitations:</p>
<ul>
<li>They can only protect what's actually new. When someone did something like that before, then that is called &quot;prior art&quot; and it invalidates the patent. For example, you could not patent &quot;A website that allows users to upload images&quot; today, because websites that allow users to upload images have already been invented and exist for ages.</li>
<li>And because you can't patent something that already exists, you have to be really specific in your patent description. Which means people can get around it by doing things slightly different than claimed in the patent. For example, if your patent says &quot;Uploaded images are displayed on the left side of the screen&quot;, then someone could avoid infringing it by displaying uploaded images on the <em>right</em> side of the screen.</li>
<li>Patents have a rather short expiration time. How long exactly depends on the country and the type of patent, but they are generally not longer than 20 years.</li>
</ul>
