After a lot of personal debate, I have decided to follow suit with some fellow bloggers and remove the bulk of my Pinterest pins. This difficult decision came after reading a number of blog posts and articles over the past month or so that have explained more about the legal ramifications of the U.S. copyright law and the terms of use statement that Pinterest currently has in place. To make a long story short, pinning content that you do not have direct permission from the originator to pin can be a violation of copyright law, and right now as the user statement is written for Pinterest, the pinner is 100% legally liable for both them self and Pinterest if any suit is brought forward for breaking that copyright. That amounts to a lot of legal liability. So in interest of keeping safe and protecting the legal copyright of those I have pinned, I have decided to remove the boards and pins on my account that might be an issue and will only be pinning images in the future that I have direct permission to pin. I do however really appreciate it when my content is appropriately pinned and will continue to support those who would like to add my correctly labeled and linked-back images to their boards. My little "Pin it" button will stay on each blog post, all that I ask is that folks continue to follow these simple guidelines when pinning my images:
- Always provide a link back to the specific post containing the image on my blog or website (rather than the entire blog address). This allows you and others to actually be able to track down the content that accompanies the image at a later date.
- Credit your pin appropriately, including my name and/or the name of my blog in your label.
- Please let me know if you do pin an image by leaving me a quick comment. I'd love to see which images you like the best!
Thanks for your understanding and for your support!
Now you've got me re-thinking the whole pinterest thing, too.. I always leave a comment telling someone if I pin something, though.. that way they can tell me if they'd rather I didn't. Happy Monday!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to me that so many seem to be doing the same thing. I don't have a Pinterest account (and from my understanding, can't because I don't have a Facebook account anymore) but I do see why people are drawn to it. I have my own system for keeping track of things on the internet and am actually working on moving most of it offline. I find I'm more productive if I don't even turn my computer on, so having inspiration and/or instructions off my computer helps me. Same thing with recipes. I bookmark them online, but if I like them, then I write them down and file them in my recipe box.
ReplyDeleteI hope that getting this awareness out about Pinterest's user agreement and the legal issues that could arise makes the site even better.
This makes me sad, because I love Pinterest! Has there been an actual lawsuit yet? I guess I don't quite understand why people are racing to remove pins when I haven't seen any evidence of anybody being sued as of yet. Even if it's just a matter of time, I'm going to go ahead and take the chance that I won't be the first one. : )
ReplyDeleteI've been debating about taking mine down as well (at least most of my pins) but did you know there is an easy way to see what has been pinned from your site? If you type this into your browser, it shows the pins from you:
ReplyDeletewww.pinterest.com/source/yoursitename.com
This way you know what is pinned where :)
Is your "please pin with care" button to be shared, or is it just for your blog? I'd love to put it on mine if you'd allow it :)
ReplyDelete