Photographer says Pinterest encourages copyright infringement
Award-winning US photographer Harold Davis is suing the online social media platform Pinterest, alleging that it knowingly made copyright-protected photos available to its users.
In the complaint, filed at the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Wednesday, November 20, Davis said that Pinterest encouraged the “wholesale, unauthorised copying of photographs”.
According to Davis, copyright infringement is at the heart of how Pinterest works.
He cited the platform’s own website, which says it provides users a place to “organise and share all the beautiful things you find on the web”.
“Simply put, Pinterest provides a mechanism for people to violate the copyright rights of others,” Davis claimed.
He said that 10 of his photographs have been reproduced on the self-described “virtual pinboard” without his permission.
Davis originally uploaded the photos to Flickr, a photo-sharing website.
From September through October this year, Davis said, Pinterest copied and pasted the photographs into emails sent to users
The photographer says that he never granted Pinterest a licence to use his work, and that the platform did not qualify for safe harbour under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Pinterest had violated his “exclusive rights of reproduction and distribution”, Davis claimed.
Davis is suing for statutory damages for willful infringement of his copyright, as well as attorneys’ fees.
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