There are of course many "social networking" websites out there that allow you (and others) to upload your work and share it. 
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Very few however seem to be quite so blatant at encouraging people to upload infringing copyrighted material to their "service" as Pinterest.com.
I'd noticed a few of my Twitter and Facebook friends start to post things via Pinterest, but had not until today actually bothered to go and check the site out to see what it is all about.
In their own words:
"Pinterest is an online pinboard. Organise and share things you love".
The choice of words here is interesting. It's not "organise and share the things you have created yourself".
It's "organise and share the things you love".
And you have absolutely no right to organise and share the things you love on their website. You only have a right to organise and share the things that other people have explicitly granted you rights to organise and share.
Chances are, the vast majority of people using this service "love" things that other people have created, and just the merest of scratches beneath the surface shows this to be the case.
Pick a subject, any subject, and do a enter it into the search box at http://www.pinterest.com.
Those who actively follow me on places such as Twitter or Facebook will be well aware that I am not entirely enamored with companies or individuals who profit off the back of my work, and that I have had particular problems with certain images that I have taken in Dubai.
I thought I'd do a seach for "Burj Khalifa" and see what turned up.
Sure enough, it didn't take much scrolling down to find an example of one of my images being ripped off.
Here's the relevant "pin":
And here's MY image being stored on pinterest's hosting company's server:
Read the small print buried many paragraphs down the page, and this is what pinterest say about what you should, and should not, upload onto their site:
"
General Prohibitions
You agree not to do any of the following:
- Post, upload, publish, submit, provide access to or transmit any Content that: (i) infringes, misappropriates or violates a third party’s patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, moral rights or other intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy;
"
But let's be realistic here. What percentage of pinterest's userbase do you think actually bother to read the terms of using the site. 1%? 0.1% 0.01%?
Whatever the percentage is, it will be miniscule. The most that they're are ever going to pay attention to is this, which is far more prominently displayed here:
"
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard.
Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web.
"
Bit of a difference there, no? In fact, we've moved on from "things you love" to simply "things you FIND on the web".
Pinterest are quite clearly encourange their users to share stuff they "find on the web". NOT images that they actually own the intellectual property rights to. Stuff they "find on the web".
Again - you have NO rights whatsoever to share and upload to Pinterest's hosting company's servers things that you "find on the web".
And of course the people behind Pinterest know this only too well.
Their entire business plan is predicated on the following two facts:
1. They know damn well that the general public do not understand even the simplest, most basic, facts about intellectual property rights.
2. They know damn well that they can get away with illegally infringing the intellectual property rights of individuals and companies and only have to do anything about it when served with a DMCA takedown notice.
Which, if you ask me, stinks. The people behind this site are deliberately encouraging people to upload and share the property of others.
The process behind DMCA takedowns exists so that those who have worked hard to create intellectual property have a way of getting companies and sites who infringe their rights to remove the work from their servers.
Pinterest have on their site a page devoted to explaining what you should do if you find your work infringed on their site. Don't thank for them for this - they no doubt would rather not have this page if they could get away with it, but if they didn't you could probably get the site shut down overnight.
Here's their copyright page:
Scroll down, and you'll find a link to their web-based Copyright Infringement Form:
My strong recommendation to anyone finding their work illegally hosted on Pinterest's site is DO NOT USE THIS FORM.
If you use this form, then the communication goes direct to Pinterest. What are they going to do? Realistically?
Well, one thing they may do is to terminate the account of an individual who has uploaded infringing material to their site.
But that's as far as it will ever go. It will NOT stop them from allowing other people to upload copyrighted work, because they quite clearly reckon they can get away with it.
Let's be honest here. If there's one fundamental flaw in Pinterest's business model, it is this:
They assume that they can get away with infringing the intellectual property of others without serious problems.
And if there's one fundamental fact about Pinterest's business model, it is this:
If they were not able to get away with infringing the intellectual property of others, they wouldn't have a business.
This is very easy to prove. Remember - uploading images to their site that you do not have the rights to is illegal. They have NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to host that work.
Here's that Burj Khalifa search again:
Every single image you see resulting from that search is hosted on their site. Click a few of them. Ask yourself this question:
What proportion of those images do you think have been uploaded by the copyright owner?
I am extremely familiar with images of the Burj Khalifa, and also with the names of the individuals who took the images.
I'd put good money on less than 5% of those images having been uploaded to Pinterest's hosting company's servers by the copyright owner. I'd have a sportsman's bet on less than 1% of them having been uploaded to the website legally. And these percentages probably hold true across the entire site.
So what should you do?
Well, as stated above, my view is that simply DMCA'ing Pinterest directly will not stop this from happening. Their entire business model assumes that they can continue to get away with infringing your rights.
What you need to do is to DMCA Pinterest's hosting company.
The agreement that Pinterest would have signed up to with their hosting company will be very similar to the agreement that users of Pinterest have signed up with Pinterest. Which, in very simple terms, comes down to this:
Do not host/upload other people's intellectual property onto our servers/websites. If you do, and we get a significant number of DMCA takedown notices issued to us, then we reserve the right to terminate your account.
Here's another percentage guestimate for you.
I reckon that if just 0.1% of the photographer's whose rights are being infringed by Pinterest were to issue DMCA takedown notices to Amazon, Pinterest would be kicked off the servers. It's the law.
Here's how to do it. It's VERY simple. I'll save you the hassle of tracking back through whois searches to find the right address to issue this to.
Send an email to this address:
With this subject:
Infringement of intellectual property rights
And this in the body:
1. Digital signature: {YOUR NAME GOES HERE}
2. Copyrighted work: {A LINK TO WHERE YOU HAVE UPLOADED YOUR WORK GOES HERE}
3. Infringing material: {A LINK TO THE DIRECT URL FOR WHERE YOUR WORK IS HOSTED ON PINTEREST GOES HERE}
4.My contact details: {YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS GOES HERE}
5.I have good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. The information in this notice is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, I am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
That's all there is to it.
If you're unsure as to how to find the link to the direct URL where your work is hosted on Pinterest, it's simple.
When you see your image in a search result, click on it, then right-click on the image that opens up in the sub-window and select "Copy image URL".
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Note - these links will probably turn up blank results within the next 72 hours as Amazon will have to comply with the DMCA notice.
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