Twitter and Peoplebrowsr settle legal dispute

Twitter and social media analytic firm Peoplebrowsr have reached a settlement which allows Peoplebrowsr to buy Twitter's data until the end of 2013.

Financial details of the settlement were not disclosed.

Although Twitter contends that individual users retain intellectual ownership over their tweets, the company has moved aggressively to block some firms who are making profits from its data. 

Peoplebrowsr sifts through Twitter and resells social media 'intelligence' to clients that include media organizations and the US Department of Defense. They have been purchasing data from Twitter directly rather than through a reseller, on a month-to-month basis before Twitter sought to end the arrangement last July. 

Beginning 2014, Peoplebrowsr will have to purchase access to the full 'firehose' of 400 mn daily tweets through one of Twitter's authorized data resellers, according to the settlement terms.