Why You Should Stop Pinning Other People's Images To Pinterest

Pinners are killing the homegrown internet content machine.
Tara Bradford's How image-sharing sites are undermining photography is an absolute must-read for both pinners and content providers.

I say this because Tara provides a comprehensive list of all the rogue image scrapers and crowdscrapers that she must deal with on a daily basis. To pinners, this should vividly illustrate the negative impact that their hobby has on the very people they purport to celebrate. To content creators, the list is a reminder of all the websites that need monitoring.

I must quote Tara here, because I swear my eyes became moist reading this:

After blogging for 7 1/2 years and writing 2,427 posts, I have deleted nearly 1000 posts - and may delete more - to avoid having to track those photos all over the Internet. I've deleted category links to posts within my blog, after at least 3 phishing sites copied every post in several categories (a website was suspended, after posting 91 of my articles). I've changed the original url to many blog posts, after finding the same photos stolen over and over again (with 19 different bridal sites as the culprits!). And I've started adding prominent watermarks to every image I post.

This is what pinners and other crowdscrapers are doing to the internet that I know and love. They are eroding it now, and they will eventually destroy it, leaving nothing but corporate content.

This internet I speak of was once a place that rewarded self-publishing. Freed of the need to please an editor, the costs and delays of print media, authors, photographers, teachers, etc. could use the internet to share information, and derive revenue from advertisement, sponsorships, licensing, print-on-demand etc.

Pinterest and other crowdscrapers incite people to strip that content from the people that create it, and surrender it at the feet of corporate entities.

Loss of vital web traffic and exclusivity of distribution removes the incentive to add more content. As Tara and others start to first stem the flow of content production, block access to image search engines, get tangled up in lawyerly pursuits... the homegrown internet content machine will dry up and die.

As Predicted...

As predicted in Exploiting Pinterest's Embed Feature, semi-automated or fully automated scraper sites are re-arranging Pinterest's crowdscraped content for further redistribution but especially PROFIT.

May this serve as a reminder for those that are flattered when their material is "pinned" - when the horses run out of the barn, there is no telling how far they'll go.

To wit: craftprojectimage.com.

Every content creator's favorite byline is displayed on this scraper blog:

No copyright infringement intended. The source of each image and it's related text is always linked to with the 'source' link at the bottom of each post.

Except that the "source link" leads back to Pinterest, not to the content provider's own website.

And the below, a reminder for everyone that argues that "Pinterest makes no money!!!":

This website uses third-party advertising companies to serve ads to visitors of this site and may use information (not including visitors' name, addresses, e-mail addresses, or telephone numbers) about visits to this website to provide ads which are of interest to the visitors. It is advised to install a dependable anti-virus software and firewall on visitor's computer so as to have optimum safety from computer virus attacks.

Pinterest may make no money beyond raising venture capital by exploiting other people's content by way of crowdscraping, but there is nothing to stop fourth-party scraper sites to exploit the EMBED feature and actually profit from copyright infringement.

The "flattery" of having one's artistic material ravaged by pinners comes at the cost of being used a tool by internet pirate to draw visitors, and infect their computers.

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.

A Crowdsourced Censorship Board

The new censorship flag crowdsources content policing
and will stroke some much needed drama.

Pinterest is not satisfied with being a crowdscraper of third-party content.

Pinterest is now crowdsourcing the censorship of "offensive content" uploaded by its users, to its users.

Pinterest users are not just unpaid scrapers, and a legal shield; they are now Pinterest's censorship board.

Pin Hags can now bitch and moan to Pinterest about the following offenses to their sensitbility:

• Nudity or Pornography
• Attacks a group or Individual
• Graphic Violence
• Hateful Speech or Symbols
• Actively promotes self-harm
• Spam
• Other

According to PC Mag, and on the plus side, the drama is bound to erupt:

Blocking someone will prevent you and the other person from being able to follow each other's boards, as well as like, repin, or comment on each other's pins.

Crowdscraper Is In

Added to the Urban Dictionary:

Crowdscraper

A crowdscraper is a website that makes use of volunteer manpower to scrape content from third party websites under the guise of being a social medium. The volunteers receive digital rewards such as "likes," "followers" or "friends." Crowdscrapers, by nature, promote a culture of unbridled copyright infringement. While they are probably legally protected from infringement claims by the DMCA, their volunteer base isn't and serves as a human legal shield.