One would think that after the Napster ordeal, the explosion of the internet, and the constant reminders about copyright and trademark infringement issues with regard to the use of images and logos from another's website, that a company like Pinterest would have been better at anticipating the problem with having people "pin" items to their site. For those of you who do not know, Pinterest is an electronic scrapbook wherein users "pin" images the website.
At first, Pinterest did nothing to help stave off the infringement that would undoubtedly occur when it encouraged people to "pin" images to the site. It took a user of the site to blog about why she removed the images she pinned--the user is both a photographer and an attorney. The blog apparently went viral and spurred Pinterest to contact her in order to begin the process of putting in place a policy to avoid the obvious legal issues.
Yes, the copyright law may be a bit behind the technology, but it caught up with Napster and it will catch up with Pinterest. It is simply hard to believe that an internet startup company would not consider the legal implications of encouraging people to post photos found on other sites. Very disappointing to say the least.
Nevertheless, it now appears that Pinterest is trying to do what it should have done in the first place. That is good especially given that Pinterest is growing quickly. Hopefully, they will get some solid legal advice on what to do and protect "pinners" and copyright owners.
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