How to Use Pinterest without Breaking the Law | Legal Industry News

Source: WSJ.com: Law Blog ? WSJ.com

There?s no doubt that Pinterest has exploded in popularity in recent months. But with that boom has come concerns for some users about copyright law.

Pinterest allows its users to create virtual bulletin boards by pinning content from across the web, including photos and recipes.

Some lawyers say that could potentially leave Pinterest users vulnerable to lawsuits ? if they don?t have permission to use the content.

The rules might be hard to swallow for average users of Pinterest, which bills itself as a site that lets you organize and share ?all the beautiful things you find on the web? and advises users in its etiquette code to ?try not to use Pinterest purely as a tool for self-promotion.?

For the most conservative of Pinterest users, lawyers say following a few simple rules will avoid potential legal trouble.

?The best and easiest way to avoid trouble is to put up your own content, the content you created,? Jonathan Pink, a California-based intellectual property lawyer with Bryan Cave LLP told the Law Blog.

For example, Mr. Pink said that if a Pinterest user sees a piece of furniture that he or she likes, or a tasty-looking cookie, they?ll be safe taking out their smart phone, snapping a photo, and pinning it.

?Own the content you are publishing,? Mr. Pink said.

On the flip side, Mr. Pink said, ?if you are going to play it conservative and safe, you should never pin an image on Pinterest for which you don?t own the copyright interest or for which you have not obtained a license from the copyright owner.?

There are some exceptions: Old photos that pre-date 1923 can be ?safely posted? under copyright law, he said.

One area that might be somewhat less risky is recipes.

?You can post a recipe as long as you are creating the text of the recipe yourself, according to Mr. Pink.

Another lawyer, John William Nelson, from Atlanta, who writes on law and technology issues, said users must be careful that they aren?t trying to profit off someone else?s work. That means avoid using other people?s images to make calendars and picture books, he said.

?The big thing is don?t say someone else?s work is your work, and don?t try to profit off of it,? he said.

For brand managers, there are heightened concerns, lawyers said.

Kyle-Beth Hilfer, a Chappaqua, New York-based attorney who specializes in intellectual property, in a recent blog offered some tips that ?brand managers? can use in handling Pinterest.

Among the items she noted was that the use of images containing a celebrity can be tricky.

?It is tempting to pin an image containing a celebrity interacting with a brand,? she wrote. ?As always, the company should obtain permission.?

Update @ 6:21 p.m. Pinterest sent Law Blog this statement:

The protection of copyrighted content is by no means unique to Pinterest ? virtually every site on the web that allows users to express themselves contends with copyright complexities. As a company we care about respecting the rights of copyright holders and have outlined on our site best practices that people should abide by when adding pins to make them useful to themselves, the community, and the content owners.

Moreover, we strongly encourage people to pin from the original source or permalinks, give credit to the content owner, and include a thoughtful pin description. If a user notices that a pin is not sourced correctly they should leave a comment so that the original pinner can update the source. Many publishers have also added ?Pin It? buttons to their site, making it easier to identify content that is okay to add to Pinterest.

Finally,?content owners who do not want their material shared on Pinterest can add a?small piece of Pinterest-provided code to their site that prevents Pinterest users from sharing that site?s content. We also strictly follow the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to ensure we are in compliance with all copyright laws and respond rapidly to infringement reports.

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Source: http://legalindustrynews.com/8508/how-to-use-pinterest-without-breaking-the-law/

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