Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Artist Nixes Pinterest

In Why my art will only be found here, romance novel cover artist Patricia Schmitt a.k.a. Pickyme. writes:
So from now on I will only be posting my art on my web site. I will link to my work on FB and Twitter, but will not be uploading to any social media site again. I just want to know where my art is and make sure that others will not profit off of my work.
I get a warm fuzzy feeling when an artist realizes the importance of distributing one's artwork in making a living.

pinterest pin


Recommended reading on Pinterest in the March issue of Arizona Attorney: Pinterest and User-Generated Content: Website Liability for Copyright Infringement.

Listed are six separate and exclusive rights of copyright owners, with the 4 below applying to image producers:

  • copy or reproduce the work;
  • distribute the work;
  • display the work;
  • make derivative works from the work

It's nice to be reminded about "distribute" and "display," and that there is no provision stating that "proper attribution" absolves infringers.

The article also points out that the DMCA requires that the ISP terminate the account of a "repeat infringer" in "appropriate circumstances" - something that Pinterest makes a big show of, with its fake strike system that never leads to account termination.
However a new "willfull blindness" standard may be applied to Pinterest from being eligible for the DMCA safe harbors.
Let's hope the above comes to pass.

8 comments:

Leslie Hawes said...

I was glad to read the Arizona Attorney article. I remain baffled as to Pinterest's ability to remain an entity in light of the fact that they facilitate copyright infringement. I have hundreds of takedown notices to prove it.

takeshi007 said...
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Leslie Hawes said...

Comment #2 is Spam.

Unknown said...
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arlee said...

I too am thrilled that actual action may be taken legally now. I also found it interesting that when one sues and agrees to settlement that you should sign a "specific" release, rather than a General, so that ALL images you don't know about *yet* can be chased down and compensated for as well.

And i'm also amazed that a certain well known fibre arts magazine who should be VERY concerned about copyright issues, encourages pinning, weakly defending itself with the usual specious arguments about "proper links and names of artist given"--you can bet if anyone used their/author's articles without permission, there would be hell to pay.

Patrick said...
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Patrick said...
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Patrick said...
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