Why I Deleted My Pinterest Boards
So I finally did it.
I deleted my Pinterest boards.
I decided to do it about a week ago but I found myself putting it off. I’ve been busy with deadlines and client work so I told myself I’d do it soon. Soon turned into another week gone by and I still hadn’t done it.
With a final check of Pinterest’s terms of use- hoping they had changed them by now, I began to delete my boards with a heavy heart.
The ethics of the site have kept me awake at night. I have concerns over the terms of use. It has gone beyond people pinning ethically (by now we should all know to credit with a link) it’s now a matter of the legal terms Pinterest are making us agree to when we start to pin.
By pinning we are agreeing that we own the copyright of the image we are uploading/pinning. How many of us pin our own stuff? Pinterest actually discourage you from doing that!
We also state that we grant Pinterest the license/ right to sell our work that we pin…How is that OK?
I’m not going to go into full details here as it has already been said by so many others. This post from Direct Match Media explains it well and this post by Anile from Girl Friday adds some more interesting points.
Despite great articles like these I wondered if I was over thinking this. Why am I not ok with this, what is wrong with me?- I felt like I was one of only a handful of people in the world who has a problem with this. So what do I do?
My answer came from revisiting my values and what I decide and believe is OK or not OK. It comes down to my value system, no-one else’s. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about everything that they encounter in the world. I decided to delete my boards (my account is still there) because it felt right for me.
I thought about it for days. I dreamt about it. I stalled, hoping Pinterest would address these concerns before I went through with it.
But they didn’t.
The first boards were hardest, I looked through them for one last time, taking in the gorgeous images I had collated. Then I remembered the images were not mine, I did not have express permission to repin them and with that I stopped looking through and just deleted them.
A strange thing happened after I deleted the first few boards, I felt lighter!
Now I’ve done it, I feel liberated. A huge weight is off my shoulders.
Out of all my boards and pins there was one (ONE!) image that I wanted to keep track of. It linked to an easy tutorial for painting a kids t-shirt. So I went to the blog and bookmarked the blog post. It felt so old school I almost laughed out loud!
This is what we did before Pinterest and this is what I’ll be doing from now on. If I see something I like I’ll bookmark the post to come back to. No re-publishing content, no dodgy licensing to worry about- just a bookmark to return to the site and view the post and tutorial when I get the time and in the place that the originator intended.
I think I can live with that.
I’d love your thoughts on this. Am I overthinking it? Do you believe everything posted on the web is fair game?
UPDATE: Pinterest have responded- sort of. What do you think? Is this enough?
I’m glad you posted the Pinterest response – I hadn’t seen that. Though, I have to say, it’s not enough. I haven’t brought myself to delete my boards because I don’t want to lose all of that awesome stuff, HA! But I really feel I need to, for the same internal reasons you deleted yours. Maybe if more of us delete our boards, the terms of service changes will happen sooner.
My whole thought behind the TOS in the first place is that they probably want to be able to use screen-shots for ad sales and they don’t want to have to ask permission of every pin source to do that. But if that’s the reason then maybe they should say that’s the only way they will sell stuff, and not make us all freak out. I want to use my boards, but I don’t want to infringe on the rights of the artists, crafters, bloggers and sellers that I love in order to do it.
Hi Isa –
No, I dont think you are over thinking it. As much as I like the idea of P for its original intent – an on line bulletin board – really, do i need it? Honestly I don’t have time for it.
I have been seriously tossing around the idea to put a P button on my website & the new blog my sister and I are working on.
I don’t want to infringe on anyone else’s ideas/photos/art etc and I don’t want anyone doing the same to me/us. But then, I want us to “get out there & be seen” so where do you draw the line?
And why does P have a problem with self promotion? I don’t know – I’m on the fence with the whole thing. The Girl Friday post sums it up pretty well.
The part that people seem to forget is that Pinterest is a funded startup in the tech industry, not just a small website someone put together. Their terms and conditions have to protect them completely otherwise they would not be able to get funding and wouldn’t be able to run at all. If you want to blame someone, blame the copyright laws and suing culture that mean companies need to go so overtop in protecting themselves.
The terms aren’t written so Pinterest can take advantage of people, that license they make you grant them when you pin something is required simply so they can show the pins on their site as they do now.
So, yes, I think Pinterest’s response is enough, more than I was expecting and as much as I was hoping for. I admit, I am a trusting soul but for me it would be enough if they kept the terms the same but wrote a statement saying how they plan to use the images. If they can manage to change their terms and conditions just a little so people aren’t worried about getting sued from pinning things and image sellers aren’t worried about Pinterest stealing their work then that would be amazing. I have a feeling they would also have to change how the site works for that to happen, though.
Thanks for your comment Claire! I agree that it’s probably just a way for them to cover themselves but I for one would love it if they just came out and said that. By just talking to one blogger here or there they are not doing themselves any favours. If they can’t share the changes they are planning publicly just yet then just say- we hear you, we are working on it.
There are a few alternatives to Pinterest that might work better than bookmarks (after all, its nice to have all those lovely images to scroll through when you need a bit of inspiration).
You could try using Evernote. You can create inspiration notebooks and collate your images there. They are private unless you choose to share your notebooks – and you can easily credit your sources and choose who gets to see what. Great for sharing ideas with clients or friends if you are working on a project together. You can use it to save lovely things from websites, photos you take yourself – even record inspiration as it happens. And it works across every device you have – android, iOS, PC & Mac … so you can take it with you wherever you go!
Read It Later is a great bookmarking app. Like Evernote you can use it on pretty much anything. Its searchable – and its new interface is great for collating your favourite inspirational images (and more) to refer to later.
Another site I have only just discovered is Clipix.com … while I am not entirely sure that their TOS are much better than Pinterest, you can set all your ‘clips’ and ‘clipboards’ to only be visible to you, can choose whether it is ok to share them or not, and can hide them from search engines and from search within Clipix – which gives you more control I think then Pinterest.
You beat me to it Meg – I was just about to suggest Evernote (which I use and love). There’s also SpringPad where you can also have your own (private I think) pinboard.
Ooooh Springpad looks very cool ….
Great suggestions, thanks Meg!
I deleted my boards this week too. Like you, I stalled and put it off. Then I began deleting the boards I knew I ‘d miss least and pretty soon I had deleted them all. I felt just the same – very uneasy about the whole thing and wondering if I was overthinking it all. Oh and rather silly for being so vocal about loving pinterest and the complete about turn when our love affair ended and I deleted all my pins. I actually had a dream about it last night in which my fears and concerns over pinterest were realised! Perhaps I do overthink too much after all!
Thank for the suggestions for alternatives for pinterest. I did do a bit of bookmarking this week, but have to say that I’d love to find a more visual way for bookmarking like pinterest.
I think a lot of people are trying to find a replacement so they an continue visually bookmarking images. I wonder if we’ll see someone bring out a new more ethical solution!
Me too. Various reasons meant I was not happy with it and I also hated the addictive nature of it! I feel much better now and I also use either evernote or visualizeus, which I love and can set to private and not share anything.
I found I was relying on it way too much to source images and to get inspiration. I’m still going to browse the net and bookmark but concentrate on creating my own images :)
Oh my…..I just love pinterest and was so hoping things would get fixed so I could keep on loving it. While I do not pin a lot of my work others have and it has brought folks I may never have reached to my online shop. I even put a pin it button on my site. Tho I realize it is not a marketing site it does work that way and could be wonderful for artisans.
Aaaack….I am troubled about this, I may delete my boards and take my pinit button down, oh what to entertain myself with now…..guess it will be back to chocolate and old movies.
I know Brenda! This blog gets thousands of hits because of Pinterest. I would love to see them take this opportunity to work with designers, makers, artists etc to create a site that could lead the field in showing the importance of protecting/respecting other people’s work. Most of us love the site and just a few changes would make it even better!
Here is hoping Isa…I have discovered so many wonderful artists that just make stunning things, I do not know if I would ever have run across their work in my usual perusing of the web….the beauty of pinterest is that you can find pinners who have the same sort of tastes as you, it almost seems like a community of sorts. I find it inspiring really.
Now that’s a lot of food for thought. Let’s cross our fingers that a solution is provided. We are all competent, creative folks – the problem can be figured out!
Wow, to everyone that deleted their pinterest. Don’t you realize that this is a typical practice among any image/idea sharing platform on the internet? As a business owner, you have to protect yourself against copyright infringement, especially when you have no control what-so-ever over what people can post in a free-to-post place of sharing.
Scenario A) If you post a copyrighted image/idea with YOU as the “claimed copyright”. They ask you to remove the image/idea.
Scenario B) If you post a copyrighted image and the COMPANY (Pinterest) has not protected themselves? They pay major fines which often leads to them shutting down.
Common practice people…..
Thank you for your comment Daniel. Personally, I don’t want to use other people’s images that I don’t own the copyright to and pin them to a shared space enabling others to do the same. I also don’t want to pin my own images to a site that then has the right to “sell” that image. It’s as simple as that for me. I understand many other photo sharing sites have similar terms (most don’t say they can sell your images though). As always it’s down to the individual whether they want to continue using the site or not, I’m just sharing my opinion with my readers who have asked through twitter and Facebook what I have decided to do.
Have been having a play with Evernote, think it could be really useful for collecting lots of different things in one private place, as well as images. Now to bite the bullet with pinterest…
I found a solution for myself but it won’t be right for everyone. First off, this is an Apple only program and there is a free “lite” version (which is just fine) and a $15. (USD) version. Anyway, it’s called ExpoBoard and they appear to be based in Moscow. I’m guessing it’s available to anyone who has access to the Mac App store (available worldwide.)
The Pros: ExpoBoard is offline software and therefore private. It’s very simple and easy to use with a clean and attractive layout. Truly a virtual bulletin board to “pin what you love” (There’s even a cork background option). Stickies are available for adding text. I really love how it acts & feels like a bulletin board … much more so than Pinterest .
The Cons: Because this is strictly offline software you are responsible for finding and bringing in images, so if you are accustomed to repinning from fellow members, this program probably won’t be right for you. You will not be able to “like” or share (repin) images or have someone like or share yours. I looked into some of the online alternatives mentioned above and I guess I think, as long as the site (any site, not just P.) is a public forum where anyone can join and pin anything, eventually, it will be corrupted. Personally, I’ve never cared whether people are following me and while I like the idea of helping talented people get more exposure, this was never my motivation for joining P.
It will be time consuming but I plan to little by little, drag my favorite images over and delete my account. My main beef is how crass P. has become and how disappointing it is that they’re letting it happen. Just today, for the heck of it I logged out and visited the front page … here’s what I saw: A severely and unnaturally built bodybuilder with a fake tan surrounded by ladies in bikinis, a cruise ship, a bottle of diet pills (all three of which were advertisements) and finally, about four or five “cute puppy” shots. At least the puppies were wholesome but the rest was garbage. Sad.
Sorry for the rambling post … I’m just so relieved to find a place to collect what inspires me and thought I should share the info. Here is the link: http://www.deepitpro.com/en/mac/products/ExpoBoard/info/index.shtml
Okay, I see upon closer look that some of the options mentioned above do have private options but they seem to be much more involved sites with many more features than Pinterest … which is why I searched for something more basic. Springpad does look very cool and tempting … might have to check it out for non-bulletin board stuff. Thanks for the tip Modupe. And thanks to Isa Maria for “putting the bug in my ear” – do people say that in England? :)
This is such a complicated issue. I hear you for sure, but what about Google? The’ve been stealing our images for years. I once had a beautiful fully clothed portrait of a young goth girl-a friend’s daughter-taken by Google, posted in the images and then put up on some disgusting site. I was furious. I went back to see “where” that image had gone and when I did, immediately removed it from my site.
How on earth do we protect our art? We are all guilty of it to some degree. Is there such a thing as TRUE copyright anymore? I’m not saying there shouldn’t be…I wish there was, but it sure seems to have been watered down to a trickle.
Thanks for a wonderful site!
Ugh so sorry to hear that Sheri! There are so many sites out there doing it that it has become normal. There is tumblr, we heart it and others all allowing images to be shared easily and without credit. Do we just give up the fight? It’s hard enough to get people to value creative work and all these sites are just making it harder. I can’t give up yet!
I am so intrigued by this topic! and have been following your process I don’t pin my own images but I do pin from Etsy. Ben’s speech at Alt Summit was met with such enthusiasm that I would have never guessed there would be any issues with creatives and Pinterest. I look forward to a solution.
Thank you for your passion!
Hi Kerry, it’s interesting you mentioned Ben’s Alt speech as I’ve been thinking about that too. It must have been some keynote for none of the big bloggers to be even questioning any of this right now! Maybe he mentioned something we don’t know about?!
I was thinking the same thing! I just saw the link to the speech so I am going try and look at that later today.
Definitely not enough of a response. How about a public statement? For the founder to claim ignorance in the matter is certainly not acceptable. He probably does have the purest of intentions, I get that, but now that a problem has been made obvious, it is his job to figure out how to fix it.
I’ll admit that I haven’t bit the bullet yet, but the more days that go by without a formal response from the Pinterest crew, the more I feel compelled to move in that direction.
For those who are interested, I’ve had this bookmarked for a while but haven’t gotten around to watching it yet, here is Ben’s keynote speech from Alt Summit: http://vimeo.com/user10165343/review/35759983/820bd84fa4
Thanks for the link Kira, will go and watch it now!
Have you checked out Dropmark? (http://dropmark.com/) It is new and is like Pinterest but not so public. You can bookmark pages, sites, files from your computer etc. and organize them. I have tried it out briefly and like it for things I don’t want to make so public.
Hi,
Just wanted to say I am fairly new to ‘new media’ type stuff but had looked at pintrest and after reading their terms and conditions, I decided not to use it, and did always wonder if perhaps the people who did use it had maybe not read the Ts & Cs – am glad it wasn’t just me being funny about things.
I am pretty worried about people stealing my images (of my own work) but I have no idea how to stop it happening.
Naomi