4 ms·

I think there’s some confusion with how the product works: The images are scraped on behalf of user request along with relevant information from the originatin

I think there’s some confusion with how the product works: The images are scraped on behalf of user request along with relevant information from the originating webpage. The goal is that all pins on Pinterest are actionable (in nearly all cases, linking to the original webpage). The most often cause of missing links is for a website to go offline. In those cases, would you rather your Google image search return no results or for a cached image on Pinterest with a link to the original website which can be used for further digging. > (probably violating the copyright holder’s rights in the process) No, that’s not what is happening at all here.

93po 5y ago
If someone takes a photo I own and post on my website and reposts it to pinterest, yes that is violating my copyright.
- joshenders 5y ago
  I’m from the US and so I can only speak to US law which I’m more familiar with and obligatory IANAL but… counterintuitively that is only _possibly_ infringement. More information would be needed to determine exactly if that is infringing. Pinterest, like most sites hosting UGC is protected under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c) DMCA safe harbor laws. The majority of pins on Pinterest are from the “pin-it button” a small snippet of JavaScript which content creators embed themselves on websites. Pinterest offers opt-out mechanisms but the majority of content creators see huge value in the additional traffic generated from Pinterest.
  - 93po 5y ago
    Pinterest is not legally liable for the copyright infringement, but they're still facilitating it and making a ton of money off of it. It doesn't make it any more right. You're right it's only "possibly" infringement - there are cases where it wouldn't be (fair use) but the default is that generally speaking, it is, and I would be surprised if more than half the content on pinterest was there legally and with consent of the copyright owner.

93po 5y ago

If someone takes a photo I own and post on my website and reposts it to pinterest, yes that is violating my copyright.

joshenders 5y ago
I’m from the US and so I can only speak to US law which I’m more familiar with and obligatory IANAL but… counterintuitively that is only _possibly_ infringement. More information would be needed to determine exactly if that is infringing. Pinterest, like most sites hosting UGC is protected under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c) DMCA safe harbor laws. The majority of pins on Pinterest are from the “pin-it button” a small snippet of JavaScript which content creators embed themselves on websites. Pinterest offers opt-out mechanisms but the majority of content creators see huge value in the additional traffic generated from Pinterest.
- 93po 5y ago
  Pinterest is not legally liable for the copyright infringement, but they're still facilitating it and making a ton of money off of it. It doesn't make it any more right. You're right it's only "possibly" infringement - there are cases where it wouldn't be (fair use) but the default is that generally speaking, it is, and I would be surprised if more than half the content on pinterest was there legally and with consent of the copyright owner.