1 April 2012

Pinterest is "morally, ethically and professionally wrong"

A US lawyer has sparked a legal debate over ‘virtual pinboard’ site Pinterest, claiming it not only violates federal copyright laws, but makes users solely responsible for any infringements.

In a blog post published in February, Kristen Kowalski, a photographer and in-house counsel for a real estate company in Georgia, warned users of the legal risks attached to sharing copyrighted images and said that by using the site, she was “arguably engaging in activity that is morally, ethically and professionally wrong”.

Pinterest allows users to share images, artwork and recipes from around the web by ‘pinning’ them to a virtual scrapbook. Users are encouraged to credit the source of an image, but are discouraged from posting only their own work. “Pinterest is designed to curate and share things you love; try not to use it purely as a tool for self-promotion”, reads a section of the website entitled ‘pin etiquette’.

But regardless of whether users credit another’s work, pinning something without the rights holder’s permission could be classed as copyright infringement. And, as Kowalski discovered when she researched the site’s terms and conditions, Pinterest places sole blame for any resulting infringement with users.

Pinterest—which had 17.8 million registered users in March—states that users “acknowledge and agree that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the entire risk arising out of your access to and use of the site ... remains with you”. The terms and conditions also state that users will be held responsible for any legal costs, losses or damages Pinterest incurs arising from their use of the site.

“My initial response,” wrote Kowalski on her site DDK Portraits, “is ‘why can’t I pin other photographers’ work? I’m giving them credit and it’s only creating more exposure from them’. But then I realised, I was unilaterally making the decision for those other photographers. The bottom line is that it is not my decision to make. Not legally, and not ethically.”

In response to her blog post, Pinterest founder Ben Silbermann contacted Kowalski and assured her there would be some changes to the site. These have yet to be implemented.

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