Beware, Pinterest users! A seemingly fantastic time-waster disguised as “inspiration” may be out to get you. If you’re not up to date regarding the latest news surrounding Pinterest’s Terms and Conditions, you may want to pay attention.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Pinterest, it is an online site where users create their own “inspiration boards.” These boards can be from a wide range of categories such as Food & Drink, Photography, Pets, Travel and Weddings. Users “pin” pictures of something relating to these categories (a cute wedding invitation idea or a great recipe) for others to “repin” to their own boards. Users have followers who follow their boards, and may follow anyone they choose. Essentially, users end up repining pictures from their followers’ boards often.
The site has become increasingly popular in a short period of time and now, larger companies such as American Eagle Outfitters and HerCampus have become involved. However, under Pinterest’s Terms and Conditions, users are unprotected from the copyright infringement as a result of their repining with out credit.
When photos are repinned, their original location is not displayed. Rather, the credit is given to the person who pinned the picture before (Example: Sally Smith via Suzy Q). Sure, one can follow the link to the original location, but if there is no need to, why bother?
Other popular media-sharing sites such as Flickr have already made changes to protect users from copyright issues. For example, when a user uploads a photo, they have the option of checking a box stating that visitors to their Flickr site are unable to repin the photos to Pinterest. The copyright infringement issue is especially prevalent among artists whose photography and artwork are on Pinterest. Instead of following the links to the original artist’s website or blog, users only view the photos through Pinterest, meaning that the artists’ websites have less traffic, and therefore make less money.
Pinterest’s statement regarding the recent concerns with the Terms and Conditions is as follows:
“Pinterest is a platform for people to share their interests through collections of images, videos, commentary and links they can share with friends. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides safe harbors for exactly this type of platform. We are committed to efficiently responding to alleged copyright infringements. We are regularly improving our process internally with the help of lawyers who are experts in the field of copyright.
As a company, we care deeply about creating value for content creators. We’re spending a great deal of time reaching out to content creators to understand their needs and concerns. So far, we’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback and have created both tools for publishers who want to make it easier to pin their content (the “Pin It” button for publisher sites) as well as tools for those who would prefer that their material isn’t pinned (an opt-out code that content owners add to their site that prevents content from being shared on Pinterest).
Our goal at Pinterest is to help people discover the things they love. Driving traffic to original content sources is fundamental to that goal.”
Pinterest’s Terms and Conditions only protect Pinterest from the copyright infringement they may encounter as a result of pictures on the site. The users, however, go unprotected. This essentially means that Pinterest users are illegally using these recipes and photos without giving credit to their original editor. Pinterest’s founder has said that changes will be and have been made regarding Pinterest’s general layout, but there is no word on whether or not the policies will be changed. This leaves us, the Pinterest addicts, in quite a predicament. Do we delete our accounts?