Pinterest: the storm


It's addictive and, unless you are an avid wearer of earplugs, very very dark glasses and have been in hibernation the last few months; you must agree the most talked about networking site of the moment.
Pinterest is taking the world by storm. (Pinterest is the 16th most-visited website in America — ahead of CNN and ESPN.com — and the 50th most popular in the world, according to ranking service Alexa. source: www.therepublic.com)
I hate storms.
They scare me.
The world is never the same after they have passed.
Their destruction change unmissable.
With a storm comes a wave.
Fresh new wind.

Pinterest is that wind of change.

Pinterest is a free virtual pin board. You can organise and share images, all sorts of images, images you find beautiful, images you find inspirational, images you find all over the net.

Pinterest is addictive and it is going viral.
So the question, the big question is:
To Pin or not to Pin?

Pinterest is doing a lot right, but there are two massive shadows lurking over this new movement.
Copyright infringement and phishing.

The majority of "pinners" blatantly disregard who the owner of the image is. Pin without reference or acknowledgement. Very WRONG.
Pinning images without proper attribution, ignoring copyright is sadly way too easy.
Educating the masses on copyright infringement is an uphill battle and one that cannot (and probably never will) be won in a day.

There are a multitude of articles (too many to reference in this post) outlining and highlighting both sides of Pinterest. (actually the web is buzzing with them!)

Here are a number that I have selected to help get to the bottom of the "pin or not to pin?" question.

This is a link to Molly McHugh's article "Pinterest is blowing up with cries of copyright infringement". A well written article with well covered points highlighting the loose ends Pinterest still has to tie up.

A number of seriously well written articles by Katherin Tyrell author of the outstanding Making a Mark blog are also available.
They cover how to prevent your images being used on Pinterest and how to get them taken off if found there without copyright consent.


Photographer/Attorney Kirsten Kowalski avid fan/user of Pinterest has written this educational blog post on why she deleted her pinboards.


So: "to Pin or not pin?"
Personally I want to pin.
I like to pin.
I believe it's an excellent business platform (plus I love seeing all the images, I'm a sucker for a good picture book!).
More and more websites, creators of fantastic images, producers of all things wonderful are allowing pinning (the pin link can be seen on their website or blog) but until Pinterest gets their head around the blatant copyright infringements, many images and some of my boards will have to go.
Discover my slightly reduced Pin world at http://pinterest.com/sheonahg/
p.s: you may pin images from this blog (they're all watermarked and ready to face the world without getting too lost!)





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Comments

Unknown said…
You are very welcome! Great to hear you enjoyed it :D
Anonymous said…
Pinterest is not fun for everybody.

http://stainedglassdesigns.blogspot.ca/2012/04/pinterest-woes.html
Unknown said…
Anonymous I agree with what your are saying. It's a storm and will leave debris in it's wake which is why I feel "go with the flow and learn as much possible" a strategy really worth investigating. Wishing you all lots of courage with your damage control.

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