Thursday, November 29, 2012

Removing Content From Loveit.com

Loveit.com does not at this time have an online DMCA complaint form, nor does it have any publicly accessible information available on how to have material removed, and who to lodge a complaint with.

After some sleuthing, below are the email addresses of the people you need to contact at Amazon's cloud service:
neteng-edge@amazon.com
robertke@amazon.com
tysonl@amazon.com
With these, you'll get through.

Now, for formatting:
Hi,

Please remove these images from your servers:
http://xxxxx.cloudfront.net/size_578xH/xxxxx
http://xxxxx.cloudfront.net/size_220xH/xxxxx


And all associated versions that you keep in other sizes.

These images are displayed here:
http://loveit.com/loves/xxxxx

They are from my website:
http://mywebsite.com/mywebpage.html

I state UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY that:

I have a good faith belief that the disputed use of the copyrighted material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law (e.g., as a fair use).

I am the owner, or authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of the copyright or of an exclusive right under the copyright that is allegedly infringed.

This information is accurate.

WRITE in your name
NOTE: I have found so far images are in two formats:
http://xxxxx.cloudfront.net/size_578xH/xxxxx
http://xxxxx.cloudfront.net/size_220xH/xxxxx

Make sure to mention both these formats in your take-down notice.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Required Anti-Pinterest Reading

From photographer Jason M. Hogle:
Thus by promoting and participating in copyright infringement, Pinterest lays claim to the intellectual property of others such that they can make money with it if they so choose, all of which is based on assuming its users have the rights they are transferring to Pinterest when they post content. That is, when they post someone else’s content, which represents the vast majority of the images shown on the site.
READ the whole article

From AMD Law Group:
Although many Pinterest users do not claim to own any of the images that they publish, it is still copyright infringement to not seek permission from the content’s creators. It’s copyright infringement even if you do link back to the original creator’s site or credit them. Unless you seek permission before you share someone else’s image, you violate the right of content holders to exclusively redistribute their material.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Pinterest Needs To Educate Its Users.


Please note that any and all images, photos, etc. have a link provided and
I will not be responsible for any copyright infringement.

This kind of comment is of the type that makes copyright owner's blood boil; it is one step beyond "no copyright infringement intended" disclaimer/admission-of-guit with its bold refusal of responsibility. As if the author of the disclaimer was the one in control, rather than the victims of her infringement (it can be called infringement, as the pinner admits not being the owner of the images and does not claim permission).

It must be remembered that this sort of ignorance is common place, if rarely this brazen, and to some extent fostered by Pinterest's recent emphasis on attribution, confirming in their user's minds that a link absolves them of infringement.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

I Hate Pinterest MOAR

Flicker:
My photostream is clearly marked all rights reserved, yet my images are still being stolen and posted other places. I HATE Pinterest for that reason.
Just plain hate it.
I hate pinterest.
I hate pinterest.
I hate pinterest.
I hate pinterest.
Never Seen A Blue Sky
I hate Pinterest. I think it’s a horrible platform to use, and the whimsical makes me want to throw up.

Now my teacher is telling me to use it.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Pinterest Hurting Design Businesses

LINK TO THE FULL STORY
I HATE Pinterest. It has literally killed my organizing business of 8 years. Since that stupid site has emerged, slowly the phone has virtually stopped ringing. Where I once had 3-5 inquiries a day, and 3-4 on-site consultations a week, not to mention projects out the wazoo, everything has come to s screeching halt this year. Pinterest has become the go to for organizing ideas, and let me tell you, talk about REDUNDANT! EVERY single organizing idea seems to be pinned on pages. And it gets worse – those who aren't even professionals are now learning their new found 'career' by studying these photos, and are starting businesses undercutting those of us who have been in the industry for years.

The last two consultations I did, both clients asked if I was on Pinterest because they wanted to show me their 'dream ideas'. So I humored them and look, and think to myself, "Huh, if you see it, why hire me?" And that is exactly what has happened. They did it themselves, and used their appt with me for validation. WHAT THE HE**? Where organizers were called upon to solve problems and introduce ideas to their prospective clients, all I hear about is Pinterest… UGH!

No, Pinterest isn't just affecting bloggers (and I was one many years ago when I had the time to blog) it's also HURTING the design business overall since photos are being lifted off sites and 'pinned', ideas are now appearing on Pinterest that belong to those designers that created them without their permission, the list goes on. For the bored stay-at-home housewife, Pinterest is a goldmine. For those of us who work in the design industry, it's slowly taking the business away… I am considering retiring after all these years because there just isn't enough interest in my services any longer…

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Infringe In Private

Today, Pinterest announced Secret Boards. Now, pinners can infringe in private.

Secret? Not really! You can invite family and friends to share in your secret boards. Who will you not invite? The artists whose work you are infringing upon, of course.
When you add a pin to a secret board, it won’t show up anywhere else on Pinterest—the only place you can see it is on your secret board.
Pinterest. Making it harder and harder for content creators to track down their material, every day.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Facebook's Planned WANT Button Meets Legal Challenge

According to Francine Ward, Attorney, reports:
On October 12th a Michigan based company called CVG-SAB LLC filed suit against Facebook, Inc. for alleged trademark infringement. The company bringing suit is better known by its DBA name, WANT. In short, it connects people with products they like, desire, or already have.

[...]Facebook has not commented on the suit, nor has a trial date been set.
Mmmm. That might just explain why Facebook so suddenly withdrew its new its Pinterest-like feature in the testing phase, before they were rolled out to the general public.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Reality Sets In At Etsy

Earlier this year, Creators Against Pinterest published: Etsy Loves Pinterest, featuring the lovestruck ramblings of enthusiastic Etsyans.

Four months later, Estyans are singing a completely different tune. Etsy has fallen out of love with Pinterest.

Some excerpts:
I've tried to look at it from a business perspective and the ROI would be much too low to make it worth while. Time is money, too. Don't forget that. My time is much better spent listing.
Very few sellers admit to getting many views from there, and you're not supposed to self-promote. So yes, you get a few views, and maybe an occasional sale. But is it really worth the time? Not to me.
I get occasional views from it and repins but I mostly like it for my own personal use.
I get some views from Pinterest.
I absolutely love Pinterest, but more for personal entertainment than for sales.
Is it even really a good idea to post your items on pinterest? I vaguely remember reading that when you post something, you're saying you have the rights to it, but you're also giving the rights to pinterest to do with as they please.
I don't know if it's brought me any sales, but it's fun!
There's so much going on in there that it's stopped making sense to spend to much time with it.
Pintrest has never helped me, but I try to help sellers by having a board titled, Favorite Etsy Finds. I have noticed some of them get repinned so sure hope someone is getting sales from it!
Tried it, didn't like it. No method to their madness!
[...] don't think it helps business but I love the site.
These comments are surprising given Pinterest's emphasis on recipes and crafts. One might have a reasonable expectation that the beautiful pictures taken by Etsy sellers, splayed all over Pinterest, would convert into a noticeable amount of conversions to sales. Apparently, it isn't the case.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Help Fill This Page Up!

Splendid. Google has new "transparency reports" that make public the copyright infringement complaints that a website receives THROUGH GOOGLE. We're not talking about filing DMCAs with Pinterest's online tool, but rather, reporting copyrighted content that appear in the Google search engine result pages, to Google itself.

Link: Transparency report for Pinterest


That's all? Copyright owners need to be more diligent
in reporting infringement to Google; it counts.


To report copyright infringement to Google: Removing Content From Google

Hopefully, if copyright owners complain to Google with greater regularity and insistence, Google's hand may be forced to take action against the popular crowdscraper.