British broadcaster BBC believes that catching content from social networks like Twitter with the owner’s permission is not against copyright laws.

Andy Mabbett, a blogger & amateur photographer, expressed his disappointment over the BBC’s act of publicizing some images taken by him without mentioning his name.

According to Mabbett, the BBC published images during riots in Tottenham with a "from Twitter" mention.

When he objected the way his images had been credited, the BBC replied, "Twitter is a social network platform which is available to most people who have a computer and therefore any content on it is not subject to the same copyright laws as it is already in the public domain."

BBC's answer mirrors the thinking of the Daily Mail's online picture editor, Elliot Wagland, who earlier said that all pictures on Twitter and TwitPic were in the public domain.

However, widespread opposition from the photography community forced the BBC to backtrack from its earlier stance. The BBC admitted that its response Mabbett’s opposition was wrong, and that didn’t represent the broadcaster’s policy.