Pinterest & Pin it button & Copyright

[Stock-Photos]

<p>Thanks Cara. I had typed this in a comment above your most recent one:<br /> <strong>"I turned of my "sharing" buttons just now. Simply because Pinterest buttons do <em>more</em> than share.They duplicate our IP in most cases at full size.</strong><br /> <br /><strong>Unfortunately, with the sharing buttons off I won't benefit from the from the traffic the other social buttons bring."</strong><br /> <br /> Looking around on Pinterest I noticed someone with the photo.net account at pinterest has pinned almost 5000 images from photo.net. (with good intentions I'm sure)</p>

<p>Most photo.net users are likely not aware their images are being duplicated, by photo.net, on pinterest.</p>

<p>One of the biggest values of photo.net is its members images. The images bring in tons of traffic and therefore revenue via ads.</p>

<p>Promoting duplication of members images of the on Pinterst servers cuts at the value of photo.net Eventually the pinterest content could be in direct competition w photo.net traffic. The incoming links are mostly usless.</p>

<p>Maybe there are words in the photo.net user agreement about to use of members images to promote the photo.net, but 5000 images? Many of those duplicated at pinterest are at the same full size as photo.net versions. Pinterest's user copyright policy is here:</p>

<p><a href="http://about.pinterest.com/copyright/">http://about.pinterest.com/copyright/</a></p>

<p>From all I've read about the pinterest copyright issue, pinterest members are at more risk (of being sued for copyright infringement) than are the suits that run the company.</p>

<p>If the photo.net user agreement does allow the duplication of any or all of IP I've put on here to pinterest, by photo.net, I'm seriously questioning any future value of my photo.net membership.</p>

<p>Maybe the photo.net newsletter would be a good place to inform /inquire with/ survey members who might not won't their images copied to pinterest servers.</p>

<p>Pinterest has a simpe "no-pin" code web site operators can implement. It will likely prevent any pinning from photo.net servers no matter how it is attempted.</p>

<p>I don't want to be a big pain in the arse. I just want copyright to be respected.</p>

<p>I sell rights to lots of my images which buyers find via image search, on photo.net. This is why I'm more concerned with copyright protections than those who might respond like this: "If you do not want your photos to be at risk, do not put them on line." Or "you should be flattered your image got pinned" or "nobody's making a profit, why do you care."</p>

[bobatkins]

<p>I think what J. Harrington might really like is at least the ability to disable <em>only</em> the Pinterest button. He has a point that Pinterest is unlike the other services in that it does grab and host a copy of the image while the other services just post a link. I suppose that allows the copyright holder to remove the image whereas with Pinterest you can remove the original, but the copy stays unless you file a DMCA takedown notice.</p>

<p>I suppose ideally it would be nice if members could chose which sharing buttons to include, but that might take a lot more programming effort.</p>

<p>The other issue, of photo.net pinning images isn't for me to really comment on, but I guess some people might like to opt out of that too, though it is (and always has been) permitted by the terms of use agreement</p>

[carashilaire]

<p>Ah yes - OK I missed that portion about not wanting to disable all of them - I'm sorry! Yes, ideally we could choose which social media buttons (rather than all or nothing). As we work through the site redesign, I can put that request in for sure - as it is definitely valid to have a choice. Thanks for bringing this up, J.Harrington.</p>

[bobatkins]

<blockquote>

<p>Pinterest has a simpe "no-pin" code web site operators can implement. It will likely prevent any pinning from photo.net servers no matter how it is attempted.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Presumably that would also prevent members who <em><strong>want</strong></em> to pin <em><strong>their own</strong></em> photos from pinning them on Pinterest. That would probably not be a desirable restriction. I assume that some members might want to pin their images in order to attract visitors to their galleries here.<br /> <br /> It would, I guess, be technically possible to block pinterest on a gallery by gallery or even image by image basis by inserting the "no-pin" meta code into the page header(s). I'm guessing that might require quite a bit of work though. Alternatively I guess it would also be technically possible to block all pinterest access to all the gallery images of a particular user by putting the appropriate meta tag on all the page headers for that members gallery images.<br /> <br /> Of course what's technically <em>possible</em> isn't always practical and depends on the programming resources available and the perceived value of the features being added. It also adds to server load since every time an image is displayed the server has to query the database to see if there is a "no-pin" directive on the image or the member before the page code can be generated.</p>