By bbr

Not long ago, I wrote up a post on the potential business use of Pinterest for those in professional services such as law, engineering and accounting. Like any social media, it has its pros and cons and the ultimate success is derived from the user’s dedication to keeping the account updated and in line with current trends. But there is one aspect that I didn’t cover in the first post: Pinterest might not be totally legal and you could potentially be breaking the law when using it. Wait, what?

Last week, Business Insider posted an article on Kristen, a lawyer and photography hobbyist who has deleted all of her Pinterest boards out of fear that sharing on the site isn’t 100 percent legal. As with Napster a few years back, the latest craze in social media allows people to post pretty much anything and everything for free without permission from the owners themselves. Since it’s so very easy to copy and share photography and art, it means a great many images can be shared quickly and without legal permissions. This is where it can get pretty ugly in the court of law. As author Alyson Shontell points out, back when Napster was dragged into court, it wasn’t just them that had to go before judge and jury, but “12 year old girls who downloaded music were sued too.”

To make it even more interesting, Business Insider reports that Pinterest has a CYA clause in their member agreement that basically states that if anything is shared illegally (even mistakenly), not only are the members 100 percent responsible for paying for and representing themselves in court, they must also cover any legal fees for Pinterest. No joke.

From author Alyson Shontell’s interview with Kristen: “My initial response is probably the same as most of yours: ‘Why [can’t I pin their work]?  I’m giving them credit and it’s only creating more exposure for them and I LOVE when people pin my stuff!’ But then I realized, I was unilaterally making the decision FOR that other photographer…Bottom line is that it is not my decision to make. Not legally and not ethically.”

Does this mean I won’t use it at all? No, I’ll still use it personally, but I’ll be way more careful about my pins. There are plenty of accounts to follow that are directly pinning their own material, so by following and sharing from them, I’m only sharing things from users who have given their permission. But on the whole, I will be much more careful and I suggest that you do as well.