Wow, Twitter must be beta testing a spine

The title of this posts was inspired by an excellent post over at Threat Level by Ryan Singel but is says exactly what my thoughts were when I first read a few days ago that Twitter went public about receiving subpoenas from the US Department of Justice demanding that Twitter turn over user information from a select number of people connected to WikiLeaks.

Not only did they go public but they also reached out to all the people whose information the DoJ had subpoenaed and let them know what was happening and that they had ten days to file arguments against the information being released. If they did nothing then after the ten days Twitter would hand over the information.

Now this may not seem like much but remember these subpoenas were sealed and came with a gag order which means Twitter had to go to court in order to get the gag order lifted, which they did, and won.

This is the email that was sent out by Twitter to those the DoJ was subpoenaing (via Geekosystem):

Kessel, Jan-07 11:20 am (PST):

Dear Twitter User:

We are writing to inform you that Twitter has received legal process requesting information regarding your Twitter account, @rop_g. A copy of the legal process is attached. The legal process requires Twitter to produce documents related to your account.

Please be advised that Twitter will respond to this request in 10 days from the date of this notice unless we receive notice from you that a motion to quash the legal process has been filed or that this matter has been otherwise resolved.

To respond to this notice, please e-mail us at .

This notice is not legal advice. You may wish to consult legal counsel about this matter. If you need assistance seeking counsel, you may consider contacting the Electronic Frontier Foundation or the ACLU .

Sincerely,

Twitter Legal

I particularly like the last part of the email:

This notice is not legal advice. You may wish to consult legal counsel about this matter. If you need assistance seeking counsel, you may consider contacting the Electronic Frontier Foundation or the ACLU .

Nice touch Twitter and for once it is nice to send kudos your way.