Pinterest has a Loaded TOS… Don’t Accept it
Tuesday, March 27th, 2012
You want my opinion? OK, here’s my opinion. Everybody loves a good web application where we can share our hopes and dreams – or pin them to a public arena – but most people don’t spare a thought to read the TOS (Terms of Service) going in that door. Pinterest would be happier if you didn’t read it, too.
The Problem with Pinterest is the Terms of Service
OK, before I get anymore troll action from Pinterest fan-girls who are upset that somebody isn’t impressed by the business model of their favourite new web-tinsel frivolity… let’s all just pull our heads in and look at this as grown-ups. It’s not about your jollies or the things you do with your web-besties when porn loses its lustre – this is about the law.
When you join and upload content to Pinterest you are legally entering an agreement that affects you (as an adult in the real world) and at least in that regard it should be hitting your radar. Because, love their service or not… the idiot that will be sitting in a courtroom is more likely you than representatives of Pinterest. It’s in their TOS… that TOS that pretty much throws you to the wolves.
Kalliopi Monoyios posted an article this week titled Pinterest’s Terms of Service, Word by Terrifying Word pointing out the magic words within their TOS that should get your adult brain firing. One paragraph from the Pinterest TOS reads:
By making available any Member Content through the Site, Application or Services, you hereby grant to Cold Brew Labs a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, copy, adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast, access, view, and otherwise exploit such Member Content only on, through or by means of the Site, Application or Services.
Kalliopi points out the bits you need to be concerned about… “worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense… yada yada. Yes, pretty much all of it.
In simple terms you hand over the content you uploaded to your Pinterest account… it goes to Cold Brew Labs forever and you can’t change your mind and they can on-sell, repurpose or do whatever the hell they want to squeeze a quid of profit from it anytime they consider it worthwhile. You have given away your stuff.
