Twitter Reaches Spam Lawsuit Settlement With Tweet Adder

Twitter has settled its lawsuit against Tweet Adder, one of five companies that Twitter sued last year, accusing them of making tools that spread spam across its service.

As AllThingsD first reported, the settlement places strict rules on what Tweet Adder is allowed to do with its current software — primarily, it has to play by all of Twitter’s rules. From the settlement document:

“Defendants … are permanently enjoined from directly or indirectly … creating, developing, manufacturing, adapting, modifying, making available, trafficking in, using, disclosing, selling, licensing, distributing (with or without monetary charge), updating, providing costumer support for, or offering for use, sale, license, or distribution (with or without monetary charge), any software or technology designed for use in connection with Twitter’s service, the use of which would violate Twitter’s Terms of Service.”

Tweet Adder still exists, but it brags on its home page that the current version of its software “complies with Twitter TOS, Uses Oauth and Twitter API!” Previous versions made it easy to auto-generate spammy tweets and post them to Twitter, as you can see from this screenshot that we took when the lawsuit was first filed:

AllThingsD also reports that Twitter previously settled out of court with Tweet Buddy, another one of the five defendants that Twitter sued. Both Tweet Adder and Tweet Buddy were classified as “Spamware” defendants. There’s a third defendant classified that way, while the other two are classified as “Spammer” defendants — individuals that Twitter says operated a network of spammy accounts. Those additional three cases are still open.