Are you a fan of Pinterest? If you are, you may not know that every time you pin a photo without permission from the photographer, you may be violating copyright law. The risk of prosecution is very small. The chances of the photographer tracking you down and taking you to court are next to none. However, if you pin a photo for a corporate Pinterest page, the stakes become higher. The larger your company is, the greater the chance you will become a target for prosecution.
Alternatives?
1. You can pin photos from creative commons licensed photos that you can find on sites like Flikr. Here are some more details on finding and using photos legitimately – and for free.
2. Contact the photographer and ask permission. However, that is probably easier said than done!
If you are a lawyer, this story from Mashable has more detail on the legal issues.
I fully understand that the hassle of finding legal photos does not fit into the whole way Pinterest was designed. But I wanted to give you some alternatives – and let you know of the legal issues.
And finally, I grabbed the Pinterest logo from the Pinterest website.
