Meanwhile, on Pinterest

With the notable exception of the Library Memes and Library Book Fun boards, when curating pins for the IRC Pinterest site I commonly upload my own content or pin directly from a site that features 'pin it' buttons for content. If re-pinning, I try to go back to the original site and check before opting to pin. Hence, it was a bit startling to receive an email from Pinterest with the subject line, "Sorry we had to delete one of your pins on Pinterest."

We're getting in touch to let you know we received a copyright complaint and have removed one (or more) of your Pins. The complaint wasn't directed against you or your Pin; it was directed against another user's Pin of the same content.

While many copyright owners are happy to have their content on Pinterest, we recognize that some do not want their content to appear on Pinterest, or did not receive attribution for the content. When a copyright owner sends us a complete notice per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), it’s our policy to remove the Pin(s).

Again, this complaint was not directed at you, or anything you did: we just thought you'd like to know why we removed your Pin.

Happy Pinning and thanks again for using Pinterest.

Wait. What?

After the initial shock (and dismay), I admit being pleased to learn Pinterest is taking these steps when images and items pinned are problematic and/or violate copyright. While I do not know particulars such as how long it took for the image to be removed, how long or how often the copyright owner had to complain, or how many sites had pinned the image (it was cute), the end result works.  I will be keeping the email and sharing it with students in my online class during our Pinterest module.