sometimes you just have to take a stand. i've just unsubscribed from a number of blogs because they don't allow sharing on pinterest. this wasn't an easy decision, because it includes blogs i love, like spirit cloth and resurrection fern. now that pinterest has responded to the masses and changed their terms of service, there is no reason for this. if you're blogging your work - you're putting it out there to be seen (unless i've completely misunderstood blogging). one of the very best ways to be seen is on pinterest. so for me, to hoard one's blog (or flickr) photos is to completely go against the very sharing spirit that is blogging. and i won't be part of it anymore. and while i respect the right of artists to protect their work, i would rather do without those blogs in my reader than support an unsharing spirit. and let's face it, a photo of the work is not the work itself, so you might argue that the work is quite safe.
to add to my righteous indignation (something of which i'm not proud, as righteousness is one of my biggest pet peeves), a couple of the people whose blogs i unfollowed (i haven't listed them all above) are ON pinterest, pinning away themselves! the nerve! they have no problem curating the work of others, but don't want theirs to be curated. how does that work?
i personally have received so much more (exposure and even income) from a spirit of sharing and openness than i would ever have gotten had i blocked everything and kept it all to myself. my photos wouldn't be part of an article on slate or a lithuanian tourism website or in a ted talk or featured on apartment therapy or available on getty images (those are the only ones that i changed from a creative commons non-commercial license on flickr, due to getty requirements) if i hadn't been willing to share them.
i intend to continue to cull such blogs from my reader as i come across them. i'm just one person and it probably won't at all make the least bit of difference to the non-sharers, but i feel it's worth taking a stand. it's the only way to keep the interwebs free and open, as they were intended.
EDITED: i should add that i am not talking here about photography or photos that people have for sale as photos - i'm talking about pictures of quilts and stones and garlands and vats of dye. not having photos which are for sale proliferated on pinterest is something else entirely. and many photographers have sites which are set up so they can't be tumbled or pinned - and i have no objection to that.
8 comments:
Interesting, I read your problems/complaints about pinterest and now this reaction which feels for me as a total opposite reaction.
Still I like you philosophy on sharing and the energy you put in it.
Have a great weekend.
"An unsharing spirit" perfectly describes so many people I have known along the way. Good phrase.
As for Pinterest, it's become so popular all of a sudden that I think that many people don't know what to make of it. As a result, they're pulling back from it until they know how to process what's going on there.
I agree that not letting others use your work, then curating other people's work is a rather hinky thing to do. I wonder if that will change as people become more comfortable with Pinterest.
I've had a lot of trouble with Pinterest lately. I can pin sidebar pictures or badges on a page but not pictures from the main post. I reload the page and it says there are no pictures that can be pinned. I try in a different browser and it works fine. Etc. There really seems to be no rhyme or reason to it! Which is all to say that I don't feel at all confident in knowing whether someone has actively disabled pinning vs. I'm encountering a bug. (I know that there is a "this image cannot be pinned" message that you get if someone has actively disabled pinning of a certain image, but sometimes even this changes in different browsers or if I reload a page.)
E - i do have my issues with pinterest, as we know...
ally - it is new and it was pretty uncertain what they were doing with the images, but they did respond to their users and revised their terms.
sarah - very interesting - i haven't had those issues and all of the blogs i unfollowed were because i got the specific "this blog does not allow pinning on pinterest" message and did not seem to be a glitch. that said, there are browser glitches (especially with chrome lately), so i'll keep that in mind.
Glitches aplenty here, but it’s particularly funny when a blog author specifically sates freedom to pin away to your heart’s content and then the “..does not allow pinning...”msg pops up.
well written! i love pinterest. i love how i have a place to organize what inspires me, etc. i don't really understand the hullabaloo that people have over it. i think it is an ethical thing that will happen no matter the web-site and terms, et al. clueless, thieving people will still copy others whether or not they have a public forum to show it. i see my projects all over the place with little recognition. when that happens, i give a nudge and ask that i am given credit. if i'm going to blog about it, it really is up for grabs, isn't it? i would much rather share than horde and so i do. even though it drives me batty when i see the copycats out there but then again, my idea had to come from something, didn't it?
This is exactly how I feel as well. I love Pinterest and the idea of what it is to be used for. Unfortunately, although they have changed their terms, it still hasn't really changed what the terms mean. They still have rights to anything that is posted without compensating the original person who owns the image (which is the main big issue that artist are having, even though currently Pinterest isn't making any money, they could), and anyone who posts a picture to Pinterest is the one liable to be sued if the owner decides to do so, even if you delete the pin.
I personally think that this is a terrible way to handle things because of the way they make it out to be a way to collect the things you like on the web and share them with friends. Essentially, a virtual scrapbook of your personal likes. I love that it means I don't have to bog down my own computer to bookmark all of the things I like.
And although I do understand why people are throwing such a fit about their stuff being posted without their permission, I believe they should be the ones to make the steps to protect it. Then if someone still downloads the picture and pins it, they have every right to be upset. Otherwise, they shouldn't post it on the internet. I don't think that many people were purposely using said images just to "steal" these artists work, but I think we all have an obligation to start rethinking what we pin.
Thank you so much for sharing this. Sometimes I feel as if I am the only one who feels this way.
That's weird--I've never encountered a blanket "this blog does not allow pinning" message.
But I did successfully pin an image from resurrection fern just now!
Post a Comment