Pinterest Liability?

LollipopsAndCrisps

I just found this article about liability on Pinterest and found it very interesting.

I've been on Pinterest for more than a year now, and, admittedly, have never thought about being held liable for anything I pin. 

The article wasn't enough to make me delete my beloved Pinterest account, but it did get me thinking. 

Discuss. 

HenHen25

As an attorney, the language in TOU does worry me. Pinterest is definitly trying to avoid liability and place the users at risk. But like many areas of the Internet the law is really unsettled and for that reason I'll continue to use Pinterest. Theres no way to know how the courts would come down on this issue. Plus I'm not sure that the damages a person could get from this type of violation could ever outweigh the high price of lengthy litigation.

ucfsteph12262003

kari5186:

I actually just received this email from pinterest literally 3 minutes before reading your post:

 I'm Ben, the co-founder of Pinterest. I removed one (or more) of your pins today at the request of a copyright owner who preferred that their images do not appear on Pinterest. The photo is here for your own records:

 

https://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lidqmxkLtI1qa9omho1_500.jpg

 

This is a rare - we usually find that people are excited to have their photos shared with a larger audience because it can drive traffic back to their site. However, when we do get requests to remove these materials, we try to respect the wishes of the content owner efficiently. If you have any questions, please email our Community Manager, Enid (enid@pinterest.com).

I just wanted to give you a heads up. Thanks so much for using Pinterest. I hope you're enjoying the site! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Pinterest DMCA #ID 863049732

- Ben and the Pinterest Team

 

I guess I had never really thought much about copyright and Pinterest.  It makes sense when it is compared to copyright laws and Facebook--I know I wouldn't want anything personal I uploaded to become public property.  The big difference for me is that I get what Pinterest is all about and I DO NOT pin anything that is personal there for that reason.  My other question is this:  Why is there so much concern over this?  Pinterest was created specifically for the purpose of COPYING other people's crafts, ingenious ideas, and the like.  Its draw is that it is a free-for-all of beautiful DIY ideas and limitless information.  I know I'm guilty of copying recipes, DIY projects, and stupid/funny pictures.  Maybe Pinterest should instead encourage its users to, and provide a special text box for proper citation of photographs and such.  

That would be a reasonable accommodation.

BackseatDriver

I wonder if the liability would be on the person who originally pinned or uploaded the copyrighted image or if it would be shared with anyone who re-pinned. I've been careful to pin only images that are okay to share, but I have no idea the original source of every item on pinterest.

kristykay123

Wow, I never really thought of this. I hope they don't do away with pinterest! It's the best thing since Facebook.

Mrs.DeliaMarieP

I thought about this, but I just assumed that, since you can click on the Pin, and therefore it takes you to the website of wherever the pin came from, that was enough to give the person "credit" for their work/photo/creation.

sweetgoose

As a professional photographer, I actually love Pinterest. I do not upload my own work to my boards because that is self-promotion, but I do not mind if someone pins one of the photos from my blog that I have made available on the internet. I love getting the recognition & the traffic to my website that comes from a pin. I think it is an easy word of mouth marketing tool.

Of course, I understand that while there are the copyright laws and restrictions that people are suppose to follow when it comes to photos on the internet, not everyone is ethical and some people will try to steal your work. I take measures such as, watermarks & posting low res files, to make sure that if someone were to try to steal my photos that they would not be able to get a very good print from the image I have uploaded to the web. I believe that this will happen with or without Pinterest and unfortunately it is just the nature of the profession I work in. There will always be people who do not understand the true value of a photograph.