Pinterest Users Can No Longer Pin Copyrighted Flickr Images

I’m sure all you Pinterest users love to share images with each other since that’s kind of the point of the site. Sometimes sharing runs into a little trouble called copyright infringement.

Venture Beat is reporting that Flickr has blocked users from sharing certain images on Pinterest. It would appear that the photo sharing site is using the no-pin code we reported on last week that allows sites to prevent their content from being shared to the digital pin board. Whenever you attempt to pin something that has the no-pin code on it, a dialog box appears that reads: “This site doesn’t allow pinning to Pinterest. Please contact the owner with any questions. Thanks for visiting!”

A Flickr representative confirmed their use of the code in a statement to Venture Beat. The code is being applied to all “non-public/non-safe page as well as when a user has disabled sharing of their Flickr account.”

It’s a smart move as Pinterest can be easily exploited to share copyrighted works. While the no-pin code is a step in the right direction, the site will probably be forced to step up its copyright protection in the coming months as more users begin to use the site.

Of course, it doesn’t stop people from just downloading an image and reuploading it as their own. The only way to stop that particular form of copyright infringement is a vigilant eye on the part of the user and the Web site administrators to flag offending content.

We’ll keep you updated on any changes that come to Pinterest as it’s the site to watch these days. It’s rare that we get to see a social networking site grow from infancy to maturity in such a short time. While issues of copyright is something every site has to deal with, it should pose no problem to the growth of the net’s most popular digital pin board.

There are 2 Comments. Add Yours.

Steve Thornton
February 27, 2012 at 9:25 am

I think this is a great thing. As someone who is a visual imagery creator my work is stolen all the time and used without me making a cent due to the difficulty of even finding where the photo is or who is using it. Then the ability to collect anything is further hampered by people not understanding that they can’t just us it for free.

What I would like is the ability to have my entire website be on Pinterest’s “No pin” list where no one could pin anything from my site and then give me the ability to have the person trying to pin the image get a note saying that if they ask me I may very well would pin it my self.

Steve Thornton
- Zach Walton
  February 27, 2012 at 9:57 am
  
  It’s definitely a subject that needs to be addressed. Some artists don’t mind their work being shared without their consent, but a large part of the artist population, like yourself, do. I think people have been used to being able to share things that other people create for so long that they don’t realize some artists want credit where credit is due. Artists definitely need to have control over what belongs to them, but it needs to be balanced with how the Internet has made the sharing of work available to all. I think that the no pin button helps achieve it somewhat.