Is using Pinterest in your best interest?
“Woe to you! You thieves and imitators of other people's labour and talents.Beware of laying your audacious hand on this artwork.”—Albrecht Durer
Interest and use of Pintinterest, a relatively new social media tool, has grown exponentially over the past few months. The site drew 23.7 million unique visitors in February, up from 3.5 million in September, according to research firm Nielsen. Another firm, Experian Marketing Services, ranks Pinterest as the third-most-popular social networking site, behind Facebook and Twitter.(1) From blog posts like “16 Ways Educators Use Pinterest,” to online advice from Inc, “9 Tips: Boost Your Business with Pinterest,” Pinterest is being touted as the latest and greatest social media tool.If you're not familiar with it, Pinterest is an online tool that lets you share visual content quickly and easily. It requires membership by invitation only. Once accepted members get a special copying tool (pinmarklet) and they are encouraged to use it to copy content from other websites to Pinterest's website. Some people are complaining that Pinterest doesn't create content for their own website—their members find it for them.With all of this gathering and sharing of content questions have been raised about whether its practices with regard to copyright law are in the best interest of its users. Copyright issues and terms of use have been a topic debate since the site's launch last September and they have modified their terms in response. Pinterest has a page on their site named Pin Etiquette with “Credit Your Sources” listed as number three. They also let their users know under their Terms of Service about their responsibility for content they post and give them a link to their Acceptable Use Policy which contains a fairly lengthy list of legalese. This information is there if their users seek it out, however, critics complain that Pinterest does not ask users to consider permissions before each "pin," aiming to make the user experience seamless. While having your content shared helps popularize it, many feel that the content creators, designers, artists, and photographers, should be asked or paid first.Some organizations, like the Artists Bill of Rights, are questioning the legalities of Pinterest and whether or not it is in the best interest of content creators. In a blog post entitled "Pinterest versus Ethics and the Law - Part 1" they refer to artist Albrecht Durer's warning, “Woe to you! You thieves and imitators of other people's labour and talents. Beware of laying your audacious hand on this artwork.” They state that, "Even at over five hundred years old this is still a message for our time. Works of art are an expression of the makers' soul, they are part of the authors being, and it is for these reasons that all people on earth are granted the human right of copyright. Copyright gives each of us the exclusive right to choose who can, and who cannot, distribute our works."(2)Others, like Brooke Isabel Gushen in her blog post "Pinterest, a Social Media Website, Shifts its Terms of Use," are talking about the cultural implications along with the legal issues. Gushen refers to Larry Lessig's TED Talk where he discusses the creativity that comes from remixing in our contemporary culture. Taking great things from the past and recreating them into something new that reflects our experience is the hallmark of today‘s generation. In his talk Lessig refers to what now look like ridiculous objections to progress from the past, like John Philip Sousa's horrified response to the "talking machine," and makes a plea for copyright law to be based on common sense.What do you think? Is Pinterest an innovative new tool that benefits its users and is a reflection of contemporary culture, or is it a manipulative social media tool that leads its users down a road of copyright infringement and is damaging to visual content creators?Notes:(1) http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/12/business/la-fi-pinterest-20120413(2) http://artists-bill-of-rights.org/news/campaign-news/pinterest-versus-ethics-and-the-law-%11-part-1/ Sources:http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/12/business/la-fi-pinterest-20120413http://www.personal.psu.edu/big5040/blogs/brooke_gushen_-_technical_writing/2012/03/pinterest-a-social-media-website-shifts-its-terms-of-use.htmlhttp://artists-bill-of-rights.org/news/campaign-news/pinterest-versus-ethics-and-the-law-%11-part-2/http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/250700/what_you_should_know_about_pinterest_and_copyright.htmlhttp://www.inc.com/john-brandon/9-tips-boost-your-business-pinterest.htmlhttp://mashable.com/2012/03/