[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4Cast #270: Pinterest and the law

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OPLIN 4Cast

OPLIN 4Cast #270: Pinterest and the law
February 22nd, 2012

<http://www.oplin.org/4cast/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/pinterest_sm.png>Most 
readers of this blog probably already know about Pinterest 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinterest>, and many are probably 
Pinterest users. OPLIN staff have not been pushing libraries to jump 
into the Pinterest frenzy, because frankly, even though some of us enjoy 
Pinterest personally, we cannot figure out what good it is for a 
library. You can't link images of book covers to your catalog, for 
instance, and you can always post pics of your storytime on your own 
website. (Please feel free to tell us in the comments if we've 
overlooked a good Pinterest idea.) Now there's a growing concern that 
Pinterest users may run afoul of the copyright law, which is certainly 
something you and your library should know about.

    * Is Pinterest the new Napster?
      <http://llsocial.com/2012/02/is-pinterest-the-new-napster/>
      (LLsocial.com/Josh Davis) "If a user sees an image anywhere on the
      web, they are just a couple clicks (with the Pinterest bookmarking
      link) from pinning it to their board and thus onto the Pinterest
      site. This is how Pinterest is used by almost every user. [...]
      The problem with this is that Pinterest's own terms of service
      <http://pinterest.com/about/terms/> states that you need to be the
      owner of or have explicit permission including all right,
      licenses, consents and releases to pin any image to their service."
    * Pinterest might be enabling massive copyright theft
      <http://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-illegal-faq-2012-2>
      (Business Insider/Kevin Lincoln) "Pinterest definitely allows
      users to post other photographers' work to the site. But it's not
      clear that this is illegal. In its terms of use, Pinterest
      actually specifies that users shouldn't pin photos they don't own
      the rights to, a request that is being ignored to an absurd
      degree. Even if you link and attribute, that does NOT absolve you
      of the fact that you took someone else's work and re-appropriated it."
    * How Pinterest uses your content without violating copyright laws
      <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_pinterest_uses_your_content_without_violating.php>
      (ReadWriteWeb/Dave Copeland) "Pinterest is able to avoid violating
      U.S. copyright laws thanks to a provision in the Internet Service
      Providers Act, which gives immunity to sites that publish
      information provided by others [...]. As long as Pinterest
      continues to comply with a provision of the Digital Millenium
      Copyright Act that requires it to remove content when asked by the
      copyright owner, users are free to continue pinning any images
      they find on the Internet."
    * How your business could get sued for using Pinterest
      <http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/startups/2012/02/pinterest-copyright-issues.html>
      (Boston Business Journal/Galen Moore) "Unlike other social media
      services, when you 'pin' something on Pinterest, you automatically
      upload an (at least) medium-sized version of the related image to
      the service. Exceptions for publishers of user-generated content
      protect Pinterest, but they don't protect you. Unless you know you
      have a 'worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive,
      transferable, royalty-free license,' you'd better tread carefully."

*/Users fact:/*

According to AppData 
<http://www.appdata.com/apps/facebook/274266067164-pinterest>, Pinterest 
currently has about 2 million daily active users.
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