Pinterest Pins All Copyright Violations On Its Users

There is an interesting story about a Pintrest users that deleted her account after the social blogging platform changed it’s Terms of Service. Essentially, as stated in the article, Pinterest users are legally responsible for what the pin (post) and repine (re-post). Only under a limited number of circumstances can someone use copyrighted material without express written permission from the copyright holder…

Copyrighted work can only be used without permission when someone is criticizing it, commenting on it, reporting on it, teaching about it, or conducting research.

Fair use of copyrighted material, as described above, seemed reasonable in a physical world. But in a digital world where people first express themselves in social networking sites, I believe fair use of copyrighted material should include retweeting, liking, plus one-ing, rebloging, and sharing as these imply some level of commenting on the work by the the original poster and her network of friends and followers.

The good news for Pinterest is that most users don’t read, understand, or care about the Terms of Service.

I Accept, Terms of Service, deleteyourself.com

I Accept, Terms of Service, deleteyourself.com