Some of my favorite blogs have been talking about copyright issues lately with Pinterest. In matter of fact, if you do a google search, there’s about three million different sources talking about the Pinterest Copyright issues.

If you follow my pinboard and have been reading my blog for quiet some time, you’ll know that I absolutely love Pinterest. There are pro’s and cons to Pinterest, but when it comes down to it, I’m going to keep on pinning and blogging about it my heart’s content. This is why I choose to do so.

Cons

Business Insider posted a beautiful, well-written article about a lawyers perspective on Pinterest Copyright and terms. One of the terms which was pointed out is that Pinterest makes the user solely reliable for what a user puts on the Pinterest website. If you ask me, it’s Pinterest’s awful way to play the “blame game.”

Pros

My most popular articles are from me talking about certain pins on pinterest. Like certain ways to do creative projects with toilet paper rolls. My articles sometimes give me 30-50 visitors a day by utelizing other pictures (and given a proper credit to my source of course). You should keep pinning if you are a blogger who has paid advertisements, sponsors, or other sources of revenue on your blog. Why? The more visitors you have, the likely they will stay and revist, and it increases your chances of a visitor clicking on a paid advertisement or sponsor. Can we say cha-ching!

If I had a certain image of my own that I posted on my blog, and someone pins it, then it’s instant visitors. And bloggers love visitors!

I have pinned other people’s pins, and not only does the original source of the work get traffic from pinterest, but they also get traffic from me. How? I blog about their pin, give the original source credit, and people click on the source because they like it and want more of it. See the outbound links below.

Block your images from being pinned

Pinterest has made it possible for images not to be pinned by using a snippet of code in your meta tags.

I think it’s a great idea for people/companies to use the snippet of code if they don’t want their images pinned. I am hoping that SEO plugins will somehow add this meta option in wordpress. When a post is created, and there is a certain image that a user doesn’t want to be pinned, they can click an option for the Meta Tag to say “No Pin.” So wherever the image/post shows up on the users website, it will have the meta tag not to be pinned.

I bet since Pinterest Copyright is so controversial lately that this function will soon take effect. I’ll be looking forward to it. I’m not a programmer, I’m a designer. If you’re a programmer and you are reading this, then please program away (and give credit where credit it is due for your inspriation to create the SEO Meta Tag No Pin option.)

My Personal, Humble Opinion

From the age of time Bloggers have been posting images and crediting other sources for the actual image. So what’s the big deal about doing it through Pinterest? You’re just as liable to get sued directly on your blog as you are through Pinterest.

My final conclusion, I’m going to keep blogging about the things I love and I’m going to share the love. I’m going to give proper credit where due, and give pinning etequit. If someone wants me to remove their image, or doesn’t want me to send traffic their way, then that’s okay. They can contact me and ask me to remove their image or to stop sending visitors to them.

Lets Discuss

As always, I’m open for discussion, insights, and opinions. I know other people have deleted all their pins because they are afraid of being sued, but what do you think? Will you keep on pinning?

PS. As I was writing this post, a company on Pinterest started following one of my boards titled “Mantel Decoration.” Who is the company? Mantel’s Direct. It’s a great way of promoting themselves, and I’m flattered that a company is following one of my inspiration boards.

Pst – Someone did create a “no-pin” wordpress plugin for wordpress. You can find it here.