NO Interest in Pinterest~!

Are you a Pinterest user? If so then this post may be directed to you. I have a major issue with Pinterest and have been fighting their conglomeration for several weeks now and many bloggers cannot understand my consternation with Pinterest. Here it is, Pinterest users are STEALING our photos from this blog and Pinterest is benefitting from the theft. Sure, supposedly the makers of Pinterest do not make money on our photos but they are clearly drawing traffic to their website by using my photos on that website at the expense of traffic to my blog! Additionally, the argument is that the photos are credited to the owner of the blog where the photos was stolen from-not! While it is true that if you click through the photo you will be taken to my blog via the illegally pinned photo, however, this does not work so well when you have a consolidated bank of photographs pinned from tinaramsey.blogspot.com because the url is not complete as shown in the below photograph. Do you see the little url that is incomplete in the upper left corner of the below screenshot? It says Pins from: Tinaramsey.blogspot Huh? Since when is this a url? And what is the point? I can only surmise it is to keep viewers of our photos on the Pinterest website and from visiting the actual source of the photographs. The only reason has to be to up the traffic to Pinterest and it appears the trick is working based on the growth of Pinterest.











These two photos were pinned by one individual and resulted in several visits to my blog as evidenced by the following picture. However; this photo of my Sitemeter statistics does not show the whole story. Other than the original pinner who stayed for a few minutes (yes, I do have her name but will leave that out for now and will discuss the individuals who steal our photos further down) all visitors to this blog stayed for a grand total of--get ready for it--0 seconds! I am assuming the original pinner stayed a few minutes to read about how to make my glass on glass on mosaic then stole, ah hem, 'pinned' the photo-two to be exact, then moved on. For what reason does someone steal others photos? If someone likes a photo the best way to save it is to bookmark the page then visit it as needed. Within an hour of pinning my photo that exact same photo was repinned several times more and I no longer have control of my original work and ideas. 











Why bother coming to the blog if the photos are present on Pinterest? Would you like another picture of some of the things folks visiting Pinterest can see that came directly from this blog? Then look at the below picture of the previous bank of photos pinners have moved from this blog to Pinterest. It is quite a few and I tell you it is not a welcomed sight to see one's work somewhere else.



Some would say that when an individual uploads a photograph to the web then they lose all rights to it. Not so!! Copyright says: 

       Copyright protects “original works of authorship” that are
fixed in a tangible form of expression. The fixation need not
be directly perceptible so long as it may be communicated with the aid of a machine or device. Copyrightable works
include the following categories:
1. literary works
2. musical works, including any accompanying words
3. dramatic works, including any accompanying music
4. pantomimes and choreographic works
5. pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works
6. motion pictures and other audiovisual works
7. sound recordings
8. architectural works
These categories should be viewed broadly. For example,
computer programs and most “compilations” may be registered
as “literary works”; maps and architectural plans may
be registered as “pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works.” (Source: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf) NOTE: LINK REMOVED OR BROKEN AT SOURCE

The exact same website says this about securing a copyright: 

How to Secure a Copyright
Copyright Secured Automatically upon Creation
The way in which copyright protection is secured is frequently
misunderstood. No publication or registration or other action
in the Copyright Office is required to secure copyright. (See
following note.) There are, however, certain definite advantages
to registration. See “Copyright Registration” on page 7.

Publication
Publication is no longer the key to obtaining federal copyright
as it was under the Copyright Act of 1909. However,
publication remains important to copyright owners.
The 1976 Copyright Act defines publication as follows:
“Publication” is the distribution of copies or phonorecords
of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership,
or by rental, lease, or lending. The offering to distribute
copies or phonorecords to a group of persons for purposes of
further distribution, public performance, or public display
constitutes publication. A public performance or display of
a work does not of itself constitute publication. (Source: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf)

I am not an attorney and will not bore you with more information on copyright but it is all in black and white located on the U.S. Copyright Office website found here if you would like to learn more about copyright. 

My view is that any photos I or my co-posters upload to the Internet belong to us. We do not transfer ownership of them to the world simply because we upload them to a blog. Google does not own our photographs, Flickr does not own them, and anyone who pins or saves our photographs does not own them simply because the photographs are available on the web. Photographs are original works just like our ideas-and they all belong to us. 

Let me liken it to the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa painting is a world renown painting and also an original work. It is owned by the French Republic and is on permanent display in the Museum Louvre in Paris.We can all agree on this fact right? While our photographs on this blog in no way compare to the Mona Lisa as far as world renown and quality our photographs are equivalent to the Mona Lisa in that they are original works and they are owned-by myself and my co-posters. We can agree on this fact. Well, let's now go one step further. The Mona Lisa is on display so that anyone who cares to pay an entry fee can view it in the Louvre right? Our photographs are on display but we don't charge for people to view them-right? If you equate putting original works on display such as what is done to photographs on the web then the same would hold true with the Mona Lisa-it is on display but one would never ever think of stealing the Mona Lisa and putting it on display in another museum without permission now would they? What makes anyone think that it is okay to steal a bloggers'  photographs and put them on display on another website? It is illegal and this is reiterated each time I contact Pinterest regarding the matter.

 Pinterest will and does remove our photographic database that their users have made on that website. Would you like to see some of the photographs stolen from this blog? The below pictures were all stolen from our blog and pinned to Pinterest's database. 

After sending a certified letter to Pinterest's copyright agent all of these photographs were removed from the website. The first time I found photographs belonging to this blog I emailed the company and received a quick response where the individual removed the photographs. But the second time I found more photographs and emailed the same individual he did not respond. That led me to mail the certified cease and desist letter to Pinterest. THEN, the photographs were removed. But why do I have to be the one to request this to happen when these photographs should not have been pinned to begin with??

Why can't Pinterest, with all of its technical experts, figure out a way other than making me add a 'metatag' to my blog, to prevent pinning of photographs on its website? Pinterest's user agreement says, 

"You acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for all Member Content that you make available through the Site, Application and Services. Accordingly, you represent and warrant that: (i) you either are the sole and exclusive owner of all Member Content that you make available through the Site, Application and Services or you have all rights, licenses, consents and releases that are necessary to grant to Cold Brew Labs the rights in such Member Content, as contemplated under these Terms; and (ii) neither the Member Content nor your posting, uploading, publication, submission or transmittal of the Member Content or Cold Brew Labs’ use of the Member Content (or any portion thereof) on, through or by means of the Site, Application and the Services will infringe, misappropriate or violate a third party’s patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, moral rights or other proprietary or intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy, or result in the violation of any applicable law or regulation." (Source: Pinterest User Terms)


When Pinterest users 'pin' photographs they are supposed to be the owner of the content they pin. I guarantee you that while I am on Pinterest I have never ever pinned anything to Pinterest that didn't belong to me (and only as a test). While I may forgive folks for 'forgetting' this part of their user agreement with Pinterest I cannot forgive them for deciding to ignore my note on this blog specifically denying the right to Pinterest users to pin our photographs. Almost all of the pins of our photographs have been AFTER I posted this notice and let's face it, the note is very hard to miss. I have no doubt Pinterest users can read and do indeed read the notice but still decide to steal the photographs. 





Our photographs are easy to find on Pinterest and not difficult at all to track down. I have begun leaving the original 'pinner' of our photographs a comment letting them know the photograph was pinned illegally. I have had two pinners respond and while one was very nice the other one had the nerve to say they did not see any disclaimer on my blog and since there was no mark on my photographs they assumed they could post our photographs. NO! This is where the misconception comes in. Simply put, original work, that is, work done by someone else, whether it is photographs or words, belongs to that person and not to the world. 

On the 21st of February I happened to be surfing the Latest Headlines feature of my computer. I never ever do this so it was fortuitous that I did so on this day. I came across an article that said Pinterest was taking a small step in preventing copyright infringement by providing a meta tag that would give would be pinners a notice saying that the blog or site does not allow pins. I installed it but apparently installed it wrong because the mosaic posting came after I installed the meta tag. Darn. I have since corrected the problem and have tested in out myself on Pinterest. I am so happy that this small step will at least help prevent some thefts of our work. 

In fact, I must say thank you to a social media representative in England. He came across this blog and saw my note on the sidebar regarding Pinterest. He emailed me the info about the new meta tag you can install on a blog to prevent those easy pinnings. The meta tag does not prevent downloading but it will slow down the pinning. I was not sure if I had installed it correctly on the blog but he actually checked it out for me without me asking. I felt this was a nice gesture and really appreciated knowing that I had finally installed the meta tag correctly. The fact he took the time to check it out was a small but giant courtesy. So far there don't seem to be any new pinnings. 


Another note about Pinterest and this blog. An anonymous commenter left a very nice comment on one of my broken concrete patio posts. The person felt that Pinterest would bring traffic to this blog and she or he said that they thought the ideas on this blog were great. I almost didn't post the comment since it was anonymous. We've had a bit of an issue with anonymous comments on here lately. But I did and I responded. I appreciate frankness and the person had a valid point. I simply explained my point as I have done in this post. All bloggers want traffic to their blog and I am not an exception to that rule. But if it is someone who is going to misuse the pictures or words on this blog then no thanks. I'd rather not get those visitors under any circumstances. There is enough content on this blog that it will stand alone in its rankings as far as getting traffic. That is satisfactory enough.

 I understand Pinterest cares about copyright and hope they continue to take steps to prevent pinners from stealing others work. And one more note, while Pinterest does not currently have advertising or make money, make no mistake, they are in the business of profit and that website is heading in that direction-at who's expense I ask you? 


I am not naive in thinking that I can stop all stealing of our photographs from this website but I can guarantee you I will do my very best to limit and to reverse the situation when I find it. So please folks, do your thing on Pinterest and have fun but leave this blog and the photographs on this blog alone....


in the garden....

Here is the code you can add to blogs to prevent Pinterest users from pinning your photos via the app the website designed. It needs to go in the header section. I had to install it twice before it worked as I am not too good with html but it is in html it must be installed. Good luck all. BTW, this meta tag will not prevent people from downloading your photos then uploading them to the web. But if you find that this has happened (as I have) you can prove copyright and force the offender to remove your photos or Blogger/Google will do it for you.

Here is a short video concerning the problems with Pinterest. It's easy to watch and understand all the issues with Pinterest. A person researching Pinterest came across this post and brought this video to my attention. Check it out for its simplicity explaining the issues with Pinterest. I am not the only one who feels the way I do about Pinterest and it will at some point be a matter for the courts to decide. In the meantime, be smart and don't pin others images either by the Pinterest app or by downloading the images. Thanks.

 http://www.newsy.com/videos/the-question-of-pinterest-s-legality/



Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Stealing Someone's Blog Posts-Not Cool

Many of my blogging friends and readers will recognize the above post of mine that I posted January 13, 2009. This post is one of my most often Googled posts and people seem to love the pictures of my treasured glass on glass mosaics that I made and mounted in my garden. In fact, it is such a beloved post another 'blogger' (read thief) decided to 'gather' a bunch of Internet articles that the person (not sure if a he or she) felt were 'wonderful' articles from the Internet. The problem is that these wonderful articles don't just appear on the Internet and don't belong to the Internet. Someone has to post these wonderful articles and hopefully that someone is the creative individual who originated the article. Posting someone else's work as your own is so not cool and this is what happened to my glass on glass mosaic post. 

When I found this post of mine I was absolutely shocked. First at the audacity, then, well just at the audacity and I am outraged. I found my post when I checked my Sitemeter for outclicks. I almost always check Sitemeter for outclicks because you can kind of see what people are interested in, where they came from and what photos they like best. This particular visitor was interested in a picture and outclicked on a picture that was posted in my original Glass on Glass post. I then went to look at the referral words which were "Glass Mosaic". When I clicked on that referral it took me to this other blog! That was not what I had expected at all needless to say. 


At this point I did two things. I left a very loud comment about letting the 'owner' of the blog know that I was the lawful owner of the post the person had posted and that I was reporting the theft to Blogger. You see, Blogger has its own policies for operating and copyright infringement is clearly in contradiction to those policies. They have a wonderful reporting page where you can report these kinds of thefts. Reporting this theft was the second thing I did. 

I am happy to report I promptly received a response that my legal complaint was received and was in the queue for action. It took another two days to finally receive an email that the offending site was removed and no longer available. I went and verified it myself and I was ever so happy the system worked! You see, had Blogger not taken the site down I'm not sure what I could've done. The 'blogger' who posted my article did not acknowledge my comment though the blog is still active-with a post on the same day I left my comment! The person did not try to contact me or apologize or offer to remove it at all. That would've been the right thing to do. 







I certainly realize that when you post things on the web, whether they be comments, words, pictures, or videos then those things are there forever and that other people can access your stuff. I get it. I do, but that does not mean that you can republish original work as your own. Certainly I don't mind links to my blog and my work and I'm sure Skeeter does not mind that either, but republishing work as your own??? Even when links within that original blog link back to the original blog? There was no link in the post that gave me credit for my work. This blogger, and I use the term loosely, made it seem as though the work belonged to him or her. Even though in the blogs header it says 'this is collection of articles from the Internet'. People don't understand what when there is an article on a blog that it might be from someone else. Blogs should be from the blogger unless specifically stated that there is a guest blogger. There are problems with bloggers or anyone else publishing the work of others. It is not the way to go even without legal problems republishing another's work as your own is unethical and amoral. If you are going to have a blog then have a blog for your own use of things you do. Surely no one has a life that is so boring they must collect articles from other authors to post on a blog? If this person appreciated my article then he or she should've copied it or bookmarked it for their own use and/or included a link in their blog for others to locate. This is the normal procedure I see used by most bloggers. Note: I must say that this blog was not a commercial blog and as far as I could see did not earn any money from ads or anything else but I still did not appreciate my blog post reposted word for word by another blogger.


We at In the Garden never have to worry about anyone saying they found their blog work on our blog because we post all original artwork and thoughts from our own lives and experiences. We post our own pictures and our words because this blog is a scrapbook of our gardens and experiences that we just happen to share with all of you and the world. When it gets to the point that our lives and experiences are stolen like this it really makes us wonder if all of our work is even worth it. 


This is the second time this has happened to our blog posts that I am aware of. In the first case Blogger took the offending website down once I proved the post was mine. While I don't mind proving the post is mine; which I do by keeping all of the original emails of my posts and by the fact that once I hit publish my photos and words are time stamped in the great world of links and urls; I think people need to discipline themselves and act how they would like to be treated. I wonder if this person would appreciate me stealing their words (if they have any) and republishing them as my work? 

in the garden....

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden