I discovered Pinterest and have been sucked into it, like lots of other people. It’s a fun place to browse. But after reading a couple of articles, (http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/startups/2012/02/pinterest-copyright-issues.html?ana=twt and http://ddkportraits.com/2012/02/why-i-tearfully-deleted-my-pinterest-inspiration-boards/), I decided to delete all of my boards except for my beads until the legal issues are resolved.

There are two problems. This is from their Terms of Use (my underlines) that says by posting my photos on Pinterest, I’m giving them the license to use my photos for anything they want to do with it:
“By making available any Member Content through the Site, Application or Services, you hereby grant to Cold Brew Labs a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, copy, adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast, access, view, and otherwise exploit such Member Content only on, through or by means of the Site, Application or Services.”

The second issue is copyright protection. The courts are in flux right now, but there has been a ruling that using a low res thumbnail can come under fair use. Pinterest uses the original photo in repinning, and the way their TOU is worded, if someone sued for copyright infringement, you’d have to hire the lawyer for both yourself and Pinterest. “You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold Cold Brew Labs, its officers, directors, employees and agents, harmless from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees, arising out of or in any way connected with (i) your access to or use of the Site, Application, Services or Site Content, (ii) your Member Content, or (iii) your violation of these Terms.”