I received an email this week about a new ebook on the rise of the app. I was interested, so I visited the website and found something I’d never seen before, a “Pay with a Tweet” option.

Click the option, and you get a pre-filled Tweet (which can be altered somewhat) that mentions the product along with a link so others can get in on the deal.

I didn’t Tweet, but I was intrigued enough to look into the company behind the idea and found out that Pay with a Tweet has been around for awhile. “Innovative Thunder” came up with the idea to help promote their own ebook, and now they offer the service free to anyone who wants to use it.

If you have been able to stomach the recent back and forth between investors in Path (CrunchFunders Michael Arrington and MG Siegler) and the rest of the online space about CrunchFund investment Path’s use of contact data then you can say you have made it. Congrats. It has been painful to watch these cloistered Silicon Valley high priests act the fool but maybe it’s a necessary evil in today’s world. That’s one explanation at least.

To be fair, it is important to note that Path’s CEO Dave Morin, otherwise known as the “What NOT To Do With Your Users Data” poster child narced out the rest of the industry in his apology to the world. I say fair because it is Path’s mission to make sure they don’t bear the full brunt of this backlash.