Twitter To Save Twitpic's 800 Million Images 'For The Time Being'

Twitter Inc TWTR gave a last-minute reprieve to the 800 million photos on Twitpic after finally killing the service Saturday over copyright issues. Twitpic founder Eric Noah agreed to give Twitter the Twitpic domain and photo archive, "thus keeping the photos and links alive for the time being," Noah said in a weekend blog post. “Also, since Twitpic's user base consists of Twitter users, it makes sense to keep this data with Twitter," Noah said. Twitpic launched in 2008 independently of Twitter, to enable tweeters to share photos at a time Twitter lacked that capacity. It gained fame in 2009 by carrying a photo of a U.S. Airways flight that made an emergency landing in the Hudson River near Manhattan. But Twitpic agreed last month to shut down the service, supposedly under pressure from Twitter. Other sites that offered photo-sharing before Twitter developed its own platform continue, including Instagram -- until it was acquired for $1 billion in 2012 by Facebook Inc, The Guardian pointed out.