A brief update to my Pinterest posts (Part 1 here, Part 2 here).
Pinterest has responded to the copyright questions that have been flying around the Internet. The company’s CEO has reached out to at least one blogger who pulled her images off the site, and they released the following statement:
Pinterest is a platform for people to share their interests through collections of images, videos, commentary and links they can share with friends. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides safe harbors for exactly this type of platform. We are committed to efficiently responding to alleged copyright infringements. We are regularly improving our process internally with the help of lawyers who are experts in the field of copyright.
As a company, we care deeply about creating value for content creators. We’re spending a great deal of time reaching out to content creators to understand their needs and concerns. So far, we’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback and have created both tools for publishers who want to make it easier to pin their content (the “Pin It” button for publisher sites) as well as tools for those who would prefer that their material isn’t pinned (an opt-out code that content owners add to their site that prevents content from being shared on Pinterest).
Our goal at Pinterest is to help people discover the things they love. Driving traffic to original content sources is fundamental to that goal.
While this definitely doesn’t resolve all the issues raised in my posts, it’s encouraging to see they are reaching out directly and at least making an attempt to try to address the public rather than simply stonewalling. That said, my larger questions about Pinterest’s legal viability still remain. I’ll be keeping an eye on this subject.
