Copyright Lawyer, Photographer Poke Holes in Pinterest

A mild case of social-media fatigue combined with the finite number of hours in a day has conspired to keep me from joining Pinterest, but the white-hot hype surrounding the site has become inescapable.

Over the past couple of days, I've come across a couple of interesting discussions involving Pinterest and copyright.

First, Connie Mableson, an attorney who specializes in intellectual-property and DMCA issues, writes: "I really enjoy the Pinterest site as do many of my family and friends but I am concerned that they will be forced to shut down for copyright infringement reasons. So, I took a look at Pinterest's DMCA Policy and related terms and found lots of things they need to fix immediately."

She ticks off a half-dozen specific issues, some apparently minor but others seemingly more significant.

The second item was a post on Google+ by Mike Shaw, a Cheshire, U.K.-based photographer who according to his profile page is followed by three-quarters of a million users there. Shaw writes: "The issues with copyright keeps rearing its ugly head within their TOS. Why should I put myself at risk? It's bad enough others put my work on there and Pinterest believes they have the right to sell it on, by adding work myself all I am doing is adding fuel to the fire. At least now should they decide to sell or claim copyright (on my work) I can stand up and say they have not gotten it from me."

Those commenting on Shaw's post offered little in the way of support for Pinterest.

And no one seems to know what to do about my social-network fatigue.

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