Pinterest's Photo Copyright Infringement Issues Get More Complex

Pinterest, being called the next Facebook, in just a few short short months it has rocketed on 

the internet to be the 16th most visited site. But this social sharing site has been facing a lot of criticism over its use of photos without attribution or permission. A few weeks ago on the measures that Flickr had taken to block images on their site from being shared on Pinterest. But, Pinterest uses a small piece of code that websites could embed to block being able to “pin” images. But they found that those measures may not be enough, and most websites haven’t adopted Flickr’s protection. According to multiple reports from Business Insider, the way the terms and conditions of the site are set up, the onus is on the Pinterest user. when someone adds a picture on Pinterest, they are required to enter a caption. If you don’t an error will pop up asking you to “describe your pin”. From the Media and intellectual property lawyer itai Maytal, that detail from the user could be the thing that keeps Pinterest from getting sued for copyright infringement. By adding a caption, the use of the photo could count as commentary, and commentary and parody protected under a fair usage. One of the sites terms anditions easily summarizes that if a photographer sues you for using an image illegally on Pinterest, you have to pay for your own lawyer and Pinterest’s lawyer, along with any charges against you and any charges against Pinterest. Pinterest is now working to find an effective solution to avoid copyright infringement.

http://www.popphoto.com/news/2012/03/pinterest’s-photo-copyright-infringement-issues-get-more-complex
By Kathleen Davis on March 20, 2012