Okay. I got an email the other day from someone who is a scrapbooker, crafter. She has a blog that I do not frequently visit but do occasionally. She had a layout posted which I pinned. I checked the link and it went directly back to her blog. I also posted her name in my pin. No where on her blog does she say anything about not sharing her images. There is no copyright info at all. She emailed me and was extremely upset because I pinned her layout. She used the exact words "copyright infringement" She also expressed concern that people could use her layout design and copy it in their own work and pass it off as their design.
I immediately went onto pinterest and deleted the pin. It was not repinned thankfully. I then emailed her back and apologized and told her I deleted her pin and would not pin her layouts again. I was very polite and did not defend myself or make excuses.
Okay, now here's the rant. I did not say this to her because she has every right to not want people to pin her creations. She is the owner of said layout, not me so I did what she wanted me to do and apologized. But really?
Questions to ponder, Why have a blog where you post your artwork, photos, designs if you don't want people to see them and appreciated them by sharing? Like I said, the pin linked directly to her blog and her name was clearly on the pin. Do people intentionally "steal" or lift layouts and pass them off as their own? How often does that happen? I really like the layout but I can almost guarantee that someone, somewhere has done almost exactly the same design and some of the elements. How many people have really come up with something that was totally completely from their own creativity and not influenced in anyway by someone else's work. Are we getting a little hysterical over the "copyright infringement" problem? This was not a blog for money either. It was a blog like my blog. No advertising, no big following.
About a month ago I noticed a layout of mine pinned on someone's board. It was thrilling. It had my name on it, linked back to my blog, whatever. great, thanks for pinning me as Ronda says.
I know that Pinterest itself has the rights to any and all of the images on the website. meaning, they can use them anyway they want. Worst case scenario? Pinterest publishes a book with images from the website and one of your images is in the book with out any acknowledgement or payment. Yeah, that sucks but the sky is not falling. I would probably do a blog post with the book and a photo of my image. I don't know. I just don't get what the huge problem is for little ol scrapbookers like me and most of us. I am not talking about people who write books or sell tutorials or teach classes even. Just regular people like me that love to create things and throw them up on the internet to hopefully get a positive response.
and hey, you can pin anything you want from my blog. just saying
rant over.
thoughts appreciated.
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