Pinterest and Copyright

I have tried to use Pinterest but cannot in good conscience "copy" someone else's work (written or photographic) --and that is what you are doing when you "pin" something. If you check some of the boards, you'll see there is no credit given to the original author. If you click the photo, yes it goes back to the source, but how many people bother to do that.

Read this article (thanks to Photoshelter) http://ddkportraits.com/2012/02/why-i-tearfully-deleted-my-pinterest-inspiration-boards/ and then decide if you really want to take the risk of "pinning" someone else's work. Here's an excerpt: ... you have no right to publish work from another photographer even though Pinterest holds a license to all work uploaded to its site (at least to the extent the person posting had a right to transfer such license in the first place).

I don't publish my photos (only links to them) on Facebook because they can be downloaded without notifying you. I don't mind sharing my work, but ask me first. What happened to common courtesy? Same is true with Pinterest. At least with google+ you get notified if a photo or post is shared.

If you want to know if anything from any of your sites has been "pinned", follow this url http://pinterest.com/source/kikolani.com/BUT REPLACE KIKOLANI.COM with the domain of your choice. Replace it with "nikonites.com" and you'll be surprised how many of our photos are on there with no mention of the photographer.

What Pinterest has done is encouraged people to break copyright rules . . . and I thought Facebook was bad. Photographers need to take a stand, and that includes this site. Where do you draw the line? It's clear that Pinterest knows there's a legal liability because they make sure their a$$ is covered in the terms of service. Just as a side note, if you pin someone's work and they sue you and Pinterest for copyright infringement, then not only do you have to get your own lawyer, but you have to get one for Pinterest at your own expense.

1. I, for one, am requesting that none of my work is PINNED by anyone here or elsewhere. . . unless it comes from one of my boards. That means that NO ONE has permission to pin (copy) anything from my blog or from nikonites.com

2. If anyone here has pinned anything from my posts on Nikonite, such as photos, PLEASE REMOVE IT IMMEDIATELY.

3. Does anyone out there know of a way to "disable" the "pin bookmarklet"?

Done! Wish I had known this when I specifically asked the question. ( http://nikonites.com/off-topic/5646-pinterest.html ) The Pin It button needs to be removed! I use Pinterest for my own collection of photos that I love and have never posted one from Nikonites without naming the author or one that was not watermarked. Sorry, won't happen again. I'll just try to remember what they looked like.

Laura, this was not aimed at you and no offense was taken. And you're right, this site needs to take some kind of stand on this. Pinterest is the problem. They are basically teaching people to break the law.

Bottom line is, I don't post any photos online that I really give a damn about. None of my best work is online anywhere. Never anything that a client paid for, and never anything I hope to make money on. There are times when I really want to share what I've done, especially over the last year, because my skills have really improved. But the moment anything is uploaded anywhere online, it can be made available to over 500 million Facebook users at the click of a single button. And that's just one avenue for image theft.

Browncoat said:

Bottom line is, I don't post any photos online that I really give a damn about. None of my best work is online anywhere. Never anything that a client paid for, and never anything I hope to make money on. There are times when I really want to share what I've done, especially over the last year, because my skills have really improved. But the moment anything is uploaded anywhere online, it can be made available to over 500 million Facebook users at the click of a single button. And that's just one avenue for image theft.

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I never trusted facebook with any pictures I posted there, I dropped out late last year or very early this year, only to rejoin to keep in touch with my family, but I don't think I will ever post another picture on that site again.
What I didn't realize is that even by private emails I send are at risk too!!!
Hey if the FBI can be hacked they can easily steal my photos.!!!

I understand your concerns Helene. After reading that, I don't like Pinterest's TOU either. When you look at it from that perspective I wouldn't want someone taking something that is mine without, at least, asking. Copyright infringement and fair use are pretty complicated subjects. Believe me, I've gotten my own fair share of letters (small books) from lawyers in the past.

However, I don't mind if someone were to pin one of my images for these reasons:

• People pinning images are more than likely not using the image for commercial purposes. If anything more people are seeing my work.
• Attribution is automatically given with a link back to the source
• If someone wanted to print that picture, they would need a larger copy, and they could contact me if they wanted to via the link
• I posted my picture on a public forum, I want people to see it
• Pinterest says they own a license to your image once it is pinned because they create a copy of the original and host it on their servers. They needed to cover their butts and that was probably the only way to do it. Are they going to use the image for other purposes? Very unlikely, but if they do, I would hope they would pay for the rights accordingly.

Also from - DDKPortraits DDK Portraits

I have been in communication with Ben Silberman and his staff over the past several weeks. They continue to assure me that changes to the terms of use are coming. The fact that it is taking so long is actually quite encouraging to me. They obviously know that there isn’t a “quick fix” to the issues and they have been taking their time to talk to users, artists and lawyers to make sure that they are addressing the concerns appropriately. I have been advised that they have been in touch with several professional photographer associations and have been listening to their concerns. In addition to the dialogue with these associations, Ben and his group have asked me to communicate to them the concerns expressed to me by individual photographers.

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Joe:

Facebook is really great about taking down images. I had a problem last year where someone stole some of my photos and posted them to their page. Because Facebook is so big, I didn't think complaining about it would do any good, but I followed the protocol, and my images were taken down from the offending page in short order. Facebook didn't mess around, and I was truly impressed. The DMCA is federal law, and not even Facebook will try to poke that one in the eye.

1) You need to know the exact URL of the images in question.
2) You must be able to prove the images are yours. I provided the originals with EXIF data and copyright intact.

People pinning images are more than likely not using the image for commercial purposes. If anything more people are seeing my work.

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I think this is just a matter of time.

Attribution is automatically given with a link back to the source

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Only if they click on the photo.

Pinterest says they own a license to your image once it is pinned because they create a copy of the original and host it on their servers. They needed to cover their butts and that was probably the only way to do it. Are they going to use the image for other purposes? Very unlikely, but if they do, I would hope they would pay for the rights accordingly.

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According to the TOU, the "pinner" is supposed to have a right or license to use the photo.

My bigger concern is where this leaves photographers who are trying to make a living. Have you ever tried to explain "copyright" to a client and why they can't just use a photo you made and plaster it all over their business website without a license? It's a matter of trying to educate the public, and along comes this website that discounts all of this.

I don't know how my resizing pics could affect their use, but I always resize to 72 dpi and max 800x800. Pictures can be looked at on a computer, but if someone was to try to use them commercially, I'm not so sure they'd have something worthy.

jdeg, you're just amazing! Thank you!

If I could offer up one more suggestion...

The default option for Pinterest should be set to "off", and those who wish to use it can turn on the feature. I think that would be the best of both worlds.

And yes, we have an amazing boss. Now if only we could get a raise.

I like that you brought this subject up. The 3 photos i have posted here, are the ONLY photos out of thousands, that i have ever posted on the internet. I am a member of a certain aviation site and the posting of pictures that are simply pulled off the interenet is rampant. I notified the admins and they did take some of the pictures down, but i think they jsut ignored the rest. These pictures were actually being portrayed as member pictures - ones that they had been taken themselves. You could even tell that some of them were cropped to take out the copyright at the bottom of the picture. I will keep my pics on my external hard drive, unless someone asks me to have a copy.

No problem.

One thing I realized that is if someone were to manually pin your picture from Nikonites (which can be done regardless of the pin button or not), the link to the source will probably not be maintained, leaving you with no credit to the picture at all.

Anthony, I think I rather leave the default to on because of this reason alone.

D5100Shooter said:

I notified the admins and they did take some of the pictures down, but i think they jsut ignored the rest.

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You're talking about another site, right?

jdeg said:

You're talking about another site, right?

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Yes, i am talking about another site - will not mention the name of it.

D5100Shooter said:

I like that you brought this subject up. The 3 photos i have posted here, are the ONLY photos out of thousands, that i have ever posted on the internet. I am a member of a certain aviation site and the posting of pictures that are simply pulled off the interenet is rampant. I notified the admins and they did take some of the pictures down, but i think they jsut ignored the rest. These pictures were actually being portrayed as member pictures - ones that they had been taken themselves. You could even tell that some of them were cropped to take out the copyright at the bottom of the picture. I will keep my pics on my external hard drive, unless someone asks me to have a copy.

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I realize that I am about as smart as a cinder block, but if you NEVER post your shots, the who is going to ask for a copy?

Question, I currently have three images "Pinned" how do I get them unpinned?

I really worried about one of the photos being stolen. I don't like the fact that Pinterest now holds a license to one of the photos because it was uploaded to its site. (According to part of Helene's post / link.)

A big thanks to the people who have pinned my images from Nikonites, I'm glad you like my images and want to share them with others. But I only wish to share them here and nowhere else. This is a smaller site compared to Flicker & Facebook where image stealing is more likely to occur. This is one of the reasons I quite posting on those two sites. After reading the threads on Pinterest I am rethinking if I even want to post here anymore.

I may not be the world's best photographer, but I do have my moments, and I'm proud of those moments, and I don't want them stolen from me.

Please no one "Pin my photos"
Thank you
Rick & Christine

but if you NEVER post your shots, the who is going to ask for a copy?

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I'm certainly not going to stop posting online. But I'm not going to make it easy for anybody to use my photos without my approval . . . as a matter of fact, I'm not leaving Pinterest, but I'm going to post a warning on my "Legal" board. I'm also reducing the res (from 100 to 72) on all my uploads at smaller dimensions . I've plastered a watermark across all my photos on Photoshelter and Zenfolio, and I've downloaded badges for all my blogs , "DMCA protected and monitored". The right click and copy is already disabled.

Every now and then we need a wake-up call on this copyright issue. We don't need to go nuts and stop posting everywhere. But we do need to apply pressure to places like Pinterest. Not posting is not the answer. Educating the public and standing up for your rights is.