By bbr

by Kelly Googe Lucas,  Marketing and Social Media Manager

Source: Mashable

In a recent post, we discussed how Pinterest’s Terms of Service (TOS) can leave the door open to potential litigation. The crux of the post is that having the ability to post anything and everything doesn’t mean you are allowed to do so. Specifically, posting images and art without the permission of the artist or owner could be violating copyright law.

In what may be complete coincidence, but seems likely a response to some negative reactions to their TOS, Pinterest has announced a revision to some of their Terms.  Here is the copy straight from their email announcement:

Updated Terms of Service

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been working on an update to our Terms. When we first launched Pinterest, we used a standard set of Terms. We think that the updated Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, and Privacy Policy are easier to understand and better reflect the direction our company is headed in the future. We’d encourage you to read these changes in their entirety, but we thought there were a few changes worth noting.

• Our original Terms stated that by posting content to Pinterest you grant Pinterest the right for to sell your content. Selling content was never our intention and we removed this from our updated Terms.
• We updated our Acceptable Use Policy and we will not allow pins that explicitly encourage self-harm or self-abuse.
• We released simpler tools for anyone to report alleged copyright or trademark infringements.
• Finally, we added language that will pave the way for new features such as a Pinterest API and Private Pinboards.

We think these changes are important and we encourage you to review the new documents here. These terms will go into effect for all users on April 6, 2012.

Like everything at Pinterest, these updates are a work in progress that we will continue to improve upon. We’re working hard to make Pinterest the best place for you to find inspiration from people who share your interest. We’ve gotten a lot of help from our community as we’ve crafted these Terms. (You can view the full text on the Pinterest blog.)

I find it refreshing that a platform as large and popular as Pinterest decided to listen to their critics and do something to address their concerns. But even with the updated TOS, there’s still room for copyright infringement. I recommend that you read through the updates and make sure you have all your ducks pinned in a neat little row.