Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Pinterest News Roundup

A lively discussion on the Etsy forum, spanning at least 25 pages in two days, was spurred by the following opening post by an Etsy seller, after receiving a "strike":
What the heck??? I pinned an image from a blog I follow. It was not the person's website. How on earth would I have known that the person didn't want their stuff pinned? This really stinks.... I don't care about the pin, I care about getting cyber-slapped for something that Pinterest encourages - PINNING!!!
Further down in the thread, she write:
If she didn't want me to pin the image at all, why didn't she just send me a message thru Pinterest right then and there and tell me to delete the pin???
...which is a fairly typical demand for courtesy from copyright infringers that lack the courtesy of asking for permission, and do not realize how much time they are costing content creators in chasing their content.

It is interesting to note that many pinners in that thread report having had "strikes" and some pins deleted. Etsy pinners are by no means a random sample, but if so many pinners have pins removed, one might be led to believe that Pinterest handles MASSIVE amounts of DMCA take-downs.

Photog Gets Into Nasty Tussle With Radio Station Over Copyright Infringement outlines a case where a photograph was used without permission, and is followed by some fascinating comments.

In Why can't we use Google images on our website?, a webmaster requests the help of a consumer advocate after receiving a demand from Getty Images. The comment section is very lively here, too.

While not about images, AP wins big: Why a court said clipping content is not fair use reports on a recent judgement imposing fair use limits on the written word, in this case, snippets from news articles.

7 comments:

Leslie Hawes said...

Thank you, CAP. I spent the morning reading the posts and comments for all the links you have provided. I saw glimmers of hope.
The one point that seems to be missed in the Etsy forums, by the commenters, is that the Pinterest business model (and that which is being copied by hundreds of image scraper sites) is the culprit. The commenters get lost in their confusion about personal 'injuries' from receiving 'strikes'. A few seem to know about or have educated themselves on copyright, but for the most part there is much wallowing in confusion as to 'why' Pinterest would set them up like that. Our point exactly. Pinterest is developing a cash cow on the backs of image creators and the complicity of image 'curators'. I can't wait for the illegality of the Pinterest business model, like Napster, to be proven.

A Glass Artist said...

The thread was quite unusual in that a lot of people didn't understand why a site providing a platform for infringing on copyrights would rap their knuckles for doing as instructed.

Even though the "strikes" don't seem to result in termination of accounts, it's interesting to see that they are effective to some degree.

Leslie Hawes said...

I just added an 'epistle' on the Etsy thread. So many in the thread came so close to 'getting' it, but would veer off at the last second. I hope some might hear my voice.
I am grateful for the Creators Against Pinterest blog.

A Glass Artist said...

I love your long comment on the Etsy threads. Beautiful.

"That's what the DMCA form is telling me when I ask to have a copyright infringed artwork removed, but then the pinner gets a watered down open ended letter saying, "It's not you, it's her...keep pinning."

*sigh* so true...

Leslie Hawes said...

A Glass Artist...Emphasis on the word ~LONG~ about my Etsy comment :) I do get windy.
Here is a link I just found over there. It's a great read. http://realbusiness.co.uk/article/18888-pinterest-a-new-marketplace-for-fakes
If I owned stock in Pinterest, I would sell it today!!

Leslie Hawes said...

Another link of interest: http://www.askchefdennis.com/2012/02/our-neighborhood-blog-watch-starts-today-and-some-startling-news-about-pinterest/

Leslie Hawes said...

There are now 67 pages of discussion on this ETtsy.