AMC Changes Mind About 'Mad Men' Character Twitters

By Eriq Gardner

More and more it seems the studios' first reaction to any potential copyright trouble is to fire off a legal demand and then ask questions later. As our colleague James Hibberd at THR's Live Feed blog has been chronicling, the AMC network sent takedown notices to micro-blogging service Twitter after a few of its users pretended they were characters from the network's "Mad Men."

Twitter is a mobile service that allows users to send short text updates on a mass basis to other connected users. In this case, some Twitter users pretended they were Don Draper, Peggy Olson, Salvatore Romano, among others, and sent out messages purporting to be live updates.

Sounds like a harmless and good promotion, no?

Well, AMC lawyers didn't think so, sending DMCA notices to Twitter alleging copyright infringement. Twitter suspended the users accounts. Fortunately, AMC soon recovered its senses, after some outside marketing experts hired by the company prodded AMC to change their mind.

Hard to believe that a hit show about the advertising world needs some schooling on the subject, but obviously, lawyers rule the roost these days.