Pinterest Ramps Up Its Legal Team

Hi Nicole, there is a very simple solution to address borrowed,(stolen) copy righted material.  Any Website that engages in the blatant use of unoriginal content should have their domain end in .rob

Great points Kim, and all. I wonder, though, about Pinterest, since the images usually link back to sites. Does that make a difference?

There are murky waters here, so Pinterest is right get good legal help, especially since the copyright police are puranhas ever thirsty for new fish to shred and blood to shed.

Right. Maybe Pinterest doesn't explicitly state on its home page: "Here's where you can pin copyrighted content that you don't own! Want suggestions? Here's a database full of them!" But that's pretty much the underlying and unspoken message of the site. Without that, there's really no site there.

In other words, if your site can't exist without abuse of copyrighted content, then you don't have a great model.

I do worry about the tendency to focus on mindless flipping through content on the Web. And I feel concerned that those who are rearranging the photos of others on a virtual pin board feel like they're "creating" something.

My vote is for Pinterest as hazy memory. 

That's the word, Nicole: "blatant."  I'm not sure the DMCA provides a safe haven for sites which are hosting blatantly infringing content.  I suppose Pinterest is going to argue that each individual example isn't blatant - but of course, the whole thrust of the site is blatant copyright infringement.

Going to make any IPO interesting, for sure.

Let me begin now to scour the web for positive content about Pinterest, everyone's favorite whipping boy. Aside from the legal issues involved are people concerned that others might just be wasting their time on Pinterest mindlessly flipping thru pages of photos much like in a Dr's waiting room?

Can we all look forward to the day when the powers that be let the anvil fall and Pinterest is just a hazy memory or will it continue to thrive under the radar to everyone's immense annoyance.

Pinterest is a really bad model. The site was designed for people to upload and share other people's copyrighted content. Not only is that bad for the legal reasons, but it leaves very little room for a real business model.

Even YouTube wasn't this blatant, as it billed itself as a site for people to broadcast themselves. Yes, it became overrun with copyrighted materials, but that's the nature of the beast. And no, Google hasn't handled this properly.

Pinterest could've been something different. It could've made deals with marketers, retailers, photographers, that allowed people to "pin" their content and buy that content straight from the site. Not only are users then creating their own boards of stuff they like, or whatever it is that gets people excited on Pinterest, but they're able to purchase through the site, AND Pinterest rids itself of legal troubles and revenue woes.

But alas. No. They go with the silliest model and hire a lawyer so they can say they've done nothing wrong. It's annoying to say the least.