This Tiny Feature Could Keep Pinterest From Getting Sued For Massive Copyright Infringement
http://www.businessinsider.com/commenting-could-keep-pinterest-from-getting-sued-2012-3


the Pinterest saga keeps going, now they are desperately trying to pass their millions of stolen images as "fair use" by forcing users writing a caption on each photo they steal.

I happen to like Pinterest, and hope they stick around. I think there's value in the site, even for photographers. Some wedding photographers have said that they're booking jobs because of people finding them on Pinterest.

That said, there's definitely some problems with copyright going on. I'm not so much concerned about my images being pinned without my knowledge or credit, but more so about how Pinterest's terms of use leave the users out in the cold if a copyright infringement lawsuit were to come knocking. Not sure how enforceable it is, but Pinterest says they're not responsible if you pin something and the copyright holder sues you because of it. Not only that, but they hold you responsible for their own legal costs should a case go to court.

For that reason, I think some of the comparisons between Pinterest and Napster are fair. We could realistically see lawsuits coming down on average folks who have no idea they're putting themselves at risk through image sharing.

Quote from: helix7 on March 13, 2012, 07:33

For that reason, I think some of the comparisons between Pinterest and Napster are fair. We could realistically see lawsuits coming down on average folks who have no idea they're putting themselves at risk through image sharing.

... copying/infringment.

Right, well that's sort of the point. If the "Pin" button really said "Infringe on a Copyright", people would have a better idea of what they're potentially exposing themselves to. Much like how things went with Napster back in the day. People were just "sharing" songs. They weren't stealing CDs, at least as far as how they saw it. It wasn't even always music that they would have bought. Some of the same logic could be applied to photography on Pinterest. And just as many folks were so naive to music copyrights in the late 90s, today I think there's a gap in thinking today when it comes to image copyrights.

Who knows, maybe Pinterest is good for the image business. Look at how the public perception of the value of digital music files changed after the Napster and Limewire lawsuits, as well as the perception of the severity of the crime (it wasn't even seen as a crime until people got dragged into court). Not sure I'd really like to see this go that far, but if it did, we'd all benefit from it.

Does "ooohh how pretty!" qualify as a comment, because seems to be about the extent of the vocabulary there.

Get over it guys. My goodness... don't want your image "pinned"? Take it offline. It's like listening to people complain about their car being stolen even though they left it running with the keys in the ignition in a bad part of town, with all the doors unlocked and left wide open.

You mean it's like getting your car stolen after you offered it for sale.  Either way blaming the victim is not usually going to win any arguments.

Get over it guys. My goodness... don't want your image "pinned"? Take it offline. It's like listening to people complain about their car being stolen even though they left it running with the keys in the ignition in a bad part of town, with all the doors unlocked and left wide open.

Great idea. I'll start pulling all of my images down from all the stock sites.

Oh, and I'll never let my car out of the garage.

Thank you, Captain Candid.

If you don't want your stuff pinned on a site you control:

Code: [Select]

<meta name="pinterest" content="nopin" />
If you don't want it pinned from other sites, better start the petitions now.

i haven't tried yet but it will just give you a message, if you link the image directly there's no way Pinterest can know
if a web site allows pinning or not.

it's probably working with javascript, all you need is to disable javascript and skip the error message.

we' re still beating around the bush and even the Pinterest CEO admits he's clueless about copyright, fair use, etc ..

 what ! they know very well 99% of their content is stolen, just as YouTube knew 80% of their videos were pirated, we're back to the wild west once again and nobody is moving a finger, some judges are even agreeing with the pirates and supporting the "sharing" ideology !

Don't know that much about Pinterest - quite tired of all these "next new things". Anyway, my understanding of their "idea" is basically pinning any material/images without any regard to copyright etc. I've also heard that pinned images are downloaded in full to Pinterest's servers? So if that is true, they don't just encourage the illicit use of copyrighted material, but also hosting it?

My worry is that problems with infringements of copyright are getting to the point that it is so big that nothing can no longer be done to combat it i.e. the people with power cave in/succumb to it. They stop fighting it and instead make it a "non-infringement" i.e. they make the problem a non-problem (for them). Why on earth otherwise isn't Pinterested sued sued and sued again? Isn't the case quite clear that what they are doing is not legit?

what pisses me off is we're seeing articles about Pinterest and copyright abuse but nothing at all about Google Images, Facebook, Flickr !

google images?!

Copyright itself seems to be under attack, and the attack is real and serious. If the 'Copyright is Monopoly' movement succeeds, our right to get paid for what we create will be gone.

Movement? Do you have a link?

Quote from: michaeldb on March 14, 2012, 11:45

Copyright itself seems to be under attack, and the attack is real and serious. If the 'Copyright is Monopoly' movement succeeds, our right to get paid for what we create will be gone.

Movement? Do you have a link?

I was referring to the general movement to abolish intellectual property rights. The idea that everything on the internet should be shared freely, that intellectual property should not be owned, or the owners not paid. That copyright is unfair, that pirates should be allowed to copy whatever they want, that governments should not enforce copyright. And so on. The people who advocate copying our images freely.

I was referring to the general movement to abolish intellectual property rights. The idea that everything on the internet should be shared freely, that intellectual property should not be owned, or the owners not paid. That copyright is unfair, that pirates should be allowed to copy whatever they want, that governments should not enforce copyright. And so on. The people who advocate copying our images freely.

they're basically thieves, or freeloaders.

at the extreme left (hahaha) you can also find also the "freetards" who willingly produce content and software for free refusing any payment in disdain.

a fine example of their hard working efforts is coding from scratch Android OS and letting greedy corporations like Google grabbing the whole code and make billions with that without giving a single dollar to the authors.

it's a crazy world !

and what if Pinterest starts offering printing services ? with each photo they can pretty well make something like RedBubble if they wanted and make billions, all without giving a crap about copyright.

AHEM.....

http://invite.print-erest.com/ [nofollow]