Pinterest, Copyright and Fair Use
While Pinterest is now the number three social media site behind Facebook and Twitter there’s still a bit of confusion over copyright and fair use when it comes to pinning.
Fortunately, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has a Pinterest-specific article about just that and looks at online precedents for fair use of copyrighted material.
The short of it runs like so:
For most users, Pinterest’s platform will provide a forum for fair uses. Posting pictures with captions and commentary, designed to spur further commentary and collaboration, are paradigmatic fair uses. Most users seek no commercial benefit, and only use as much of the underlying image as is necessary for the commentary. Thus, a typical Pinterest user, to the extent she draws from copyrighted works, will be making acceptable fair uses of those works.
For the long of it, visit the EFF. Besides copyright and fair use, they dive into Pinterests’ evolving terms and conditions and the confusion that they spawned.
Image: Screenshot of the FJP Infographics and Visualization board.
Okay. So us “users” are safe, according to the article. But, what about a business using Pinterest? Can someone hurry up and just sue the crap out of a business using Pinterest so we can get see what the courts will do?