When people advertise your brand for free, even in the smallest way, you are behaving rather foolishly when you start sending threats to them. This is a relati

When people advertise your brand for free, even in the smallest way, you are behaving rather foolishly when you start sending threats to them. This is a relatively minor incident in the grand scheme of things, but Pinterest is just shooting themselves in the foot here. While there are some complicated legal issues involved with so-called "defending your IP so you don't lose it", the biggest thing I see here as a developer is that one of the bigger social networks is using its time and energy to crush somebody that is effectively advertising their brand for free and is quite literally no threat to their interests. As a developer, I see what companies like Twitter do when they get popular and make it difficult for others to build products and this makes me concerned. When Pinterest inevitably releases their own API, why should developers invest time and energy developing products that benefit the Pinterest brand when there's a chance that the effort will be wasted because their lawyers are trigger happy? Pinterest is one of a handful of companies that has a chance to sort of challenge Facebook down the road. My advice is that their management should work with their lawyers to avoid screwing their own reputation. This is salvageable for Pinterest and an opportunity for them to clarify that they are developer friendly and not a dumb, faceless corporation like Twitter has become.