Andre Yoskowitz
6 Sep 2014 18:42
Twitpic is officially shutting down, meaning millions of your photo links on Twitter will soon go dark.
The service, once the most popular way to post images to Twitter, says they will be shutting down on September 25th. A photo exporting tool will be made available next week.
In their parting post, Twitpic says Twitter has been pressuring the company over their name for some time, even demanding that they drop their pending application to trademark the Twitpic name. The filing was made in 2009. The company says Twitter threatened to cut Twitpic's acess to the Twitter API, effectively killing the service anyway.
"Unfortunately we do not have the resources to fend off a large company like Twitter to maintain our mark which we believe whole heartedly is rightfully ours," Twitpic founder Noah Everett wrote. Rather than try to fight the multi-billion company, Everett and the company will shut down instead.
While Twitpic was extremely popular when Twitter was smaller, the company was not necessary now. Twitter has its own image posting links, and now even has its own GIF URL ability, which had kept Twitpic relevant over the years.
Twitter, for its part, says they are sad at the outcome, but reiterates that the company was free to use the name as long as they dropped the trademark filing. "We're sad to see Twitpic is shutting down. We encourage developers to build on top of the Twitter service, as Twitpic has done for years, and we made it clear that they could operate using the Twitpic name. Of course, we also have to protect our brand, and that includes trademarks tied to the brand," added a Twitter spokesperson.
Of course, this position makes plenty of sense. If Twitpic was approved the trademark, it would open the floodgates to other potentially less savory companies to try and delude the Twitter/Twit/Tweet brand with their own trademarks that would be out of Twitter's control.
Source:
RWW