“Pin-falls” of Pinterest

I’m sure most people are aware of the social media-based image bookmarking tool called Pinterest. I’m sure most people aren’t aware of the terms within their site. These terms basically put the burden on the user to be responsible for getting permissions to the content displayed. For most people, including myself, I thought this would be covered under fair use (editorial/personal use), however I am not willing to take that risk. Even though Pinterest has stated that the site isn’t to be used for self-promotion, their terms of use essentially require one to only pin their own content. There are very few obviously pin-friendly sites out there (oh and for the record, I give permission for you to pin my work, as long as you credit me…which is kind of a given since it should link back to my site).

What could be a great tool is now a controversial mess, and one that I wouldn’t want to be zapped into.