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Spending my days filing DMCA complaints to Pinterest

An unfair burden that prevents me from creating new content

         

helleborine

4:37 am on Mar 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Pinterest has an easy-to-use DMCA interactive complaint form. Unfortunately, when a webmaster is faced with hundreds and hundreds of full-size images being stolen and displayed on Pinterest, filing hundreds and hundreds of DMCA complaints for every single image is extraordinarily tedious.

My carpal tunnel is flaring up in a bad way...

I'm wasting so much time on this, I'm paralyzed; it is taking large chunks of time away from my thinking about new content, getting ideas, and implementing them.

My revenue is largely based on page views, and while some might argue that my images being exposed on Pinterest is a good thing, the hard facts are, it isn't. I'm not getting traffic from Pinterest. Visitors view images on Pinterest and do not follow the links to my site. With the no-follow tag on links, I'm not getting PR juice either.

Pinterest is a losing proposition for me. Right now I can offer the images for free, but if Pinterest eats up the images of the internet like FB has eaten much of the forum activity on the web, I'm going to have to cloak my images and sell them. Pinterest is a veritable vampire for anyone who is seriously in the image business.

The opt-out meta-tag is a joke, I can't change thousands of web pages...

They have to come up with a way to opt out entire websites.

This is INSANE.

helleborine

1:06 pm on Mar 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Last night I sent Pinterest a long letter demanding that they stop accepting images for any of my long list of websites IN THE FUTURE.

I've also gone to my interactive websites and social media asking that people not pin my content to Pinterest, with explanation.

If Pinterest fails to find a way to block my website IN THE FUTURE, not just the past, I will be on the market for a pro bono lawyer with a lot of time on his hands and a burning hate for copyright infringers.

StoutFiles

1:37 pm on Mar 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



The opt-out meta-tag is a joke, I can't change thousands of web pages...


Why aren't your pages displayed dynamically? You should consider attempting that regardless.

They have to come up with a way to opt out entire websites.


They probably won't, Pinterest (like YouTube before it) benefits from stolen content. There are other methods you could use like watermarking, but yes, most image sites have opted for paywalls. The internet is still too much like the Wild West, if you put content out there, prepare for it to be stolen.

Staffa

1:45 pm on Mar 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



In your log files, did you check with what IP numbers Pinterest calls your images to be pinned ?

I noticed that they come from Amazon IP ranges and by blocking those (which should be blocked anyway) they can't grab your images.

incrediBILL

6:34 pm on Mar 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



They have to come up with a way to opt out entire websites.


All you have to do is add some anti-hotlinking code into your .htaccess file that blocks all Pinterest referrers and/or sends them an image with a message like "I'm sorry, example.com does not allow linking from Pinterest".

Work smart, not hard, as chasing image hotlinks with DMCA is silly when 3-4 lines of .htaccess code permanently stop the problem.

JAB Creations

6:45 pm on Mar 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



If they're directly linking you can add exceptions to domains you wish to allow and then rewrite all other requests to images to something else.

.htaccess 
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?example1\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?example2\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?example3\.com [NC]
RewriteRule \.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ images/prevent-front-lawn-hippies.gif [L]


Having people "steal" your content means you're not realizing what a marketing gold mine you already have. Stick your website's address on the images that doesn't overpower the image and you'll find that people will actually actively come to your site looking for more.

- John

greenleaves

6:48 pm on Mar 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Ditto what Bill said.

I take it a step further. Long before pinterest I set up a anti-hot linking script which replaces the image with one that reads something like:

Get Cheap Widgets at MySite.com (for drop ship site)

Or:

Warning, BEFORE you Buy Widget, Visit MySite.com (for affiliate review site)

Also, you could watermark them so you get free exposure in exchange for a little bandwidth

helleborine

6:59 pm on Mar 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



They are not hotlinking; full-size graphics are hosted on the Pinterest servers. Will that code work if they're not hotlinking?

It's not a marketing goldmine at all because I'm not selling anything. My sites are basically financed by advertising, so I value my traffic.

I'm spending today filing yet more DMCA complaints. If there is one error in the complaint file, it wipes EVERYTHING clean and you have to start from scratch. It's infuriating.

incrediBILL

7:01 pm on Mar 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



They are not hotlinking; full-size graphics are hosted on the Pinterest servers. Will that code work if they're not hotlinking?


They have to be able to download the image in the first place regardless.

You can stop images from being loaded with no referrer, block the Pinterest IP range, lots of options.

I agree with @greenleaves above, watermark all your images and then get free advertising.

Turn your infuriating problem into a marketing windfall.

helleborine

7:20 pm on Mar 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



The rate of Pinterest visitors making it to my website is next to nothing, so there is no marketing windfall to be had from Pinterest. I think people view the pin boards, click to see the full size image of what they like, and don't bother with the original website.

That is my observation.

I'm not keen on watermarking the images, it's defacing my own website - cutting off my nose to spite my face.

I'm going to block pinterest as a referrer on htaccess. I'll post my results.

bwnbwn

7:51 pm on Mar 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



helleborine don't publish/watermark your business that is your business I for one can't understand your logic.

lucy24

8:31 pm on Mar 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



don't publish/watermark your business that is your business I for one can't understand your logic

I can't understand your post, especially as a response to the preceding one.

I think the OP is looking for a solution that doesn't involve either a huge time investment or massive changes to things that already exist, forced by a third party's actions over which he has no control. Class-action lawsuit, anyone?

If they're not hotlinking, that whole simple fix goes down the tubes. Of course you'd have an anti-hotlinking routine anyway, but it won't make any difference here.

And if you block all no-referer visits, g### and its siblings will throw tantrums. (Different thread.)

bwnbwn

8:51 pm on Mar 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



he was given several options to fix the issue. I actually deleted most of my post due to giving away a very good and trageted market. About all I am going to say about that but I for one would want to publish my business to targeted traffic.

incrediBILL

9:30 pm on Mar 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I'm not keen on watermarking the images, it's defacing my own website - cutting off my nose to spite my face.


You don't have to watermark what's show on your site.

Put images in 2 directories called /site and /off-site and create a rewrite rule that redirects anything requesting the same image that isn't coming from your pages, to load them from the off-site directory.

Simple solutions for simple problems and your nose is still intact although it would appear slightly bent.

cbpayne

9:32 pm on Mar 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Is a class action against them warranted?

fathom

9:41 pm on Mar 28, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I'm spending today filing yet more DMCA complaints.


Assuming these are registered with the copyright office instead of filing DMCA takedown orders you should start filing illegal use fees to avoid prosecution.

At least that way you can hire a collection dept. to take care of the workload.

helleborine

12:49 am on Mar 29, 2012 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



What, now I have to worry about avoiding prosecution?

Here are some generic log entries: 

000.000.000.000 - - [date/time] "GET /mypage.html HTTP/1.1" 200 --- "http://pinterest.com/pinner/pinnerfolder/" 
111.111.111.111 - - [date/time] "GET /mypage.html HTTP/1.1" 200 --- "http://pinterest.com/pin/000000000000/" 
222.222.222.222 - - [date/time] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 --- "http://pinterest.com/source/mywebsite.com/"


I'm not sure if those are "pins" being made. I don't believe you can get to my pages from those pinterest pages, a page is being called up rather than an image.

I've encountered the below on another website, could these be actual pins? 

444.444.444.444 - - [date/time] "GET /myimage1.jpg HTTP/1.1" 200 --- "-" "Pinterest/0.1 +http://pinterest.com/"


This shows blank referrer, Pinterest is the user agent? Am I getting this right?

fathom

2:24 am on Mar 29, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



DCMA isn't about protecting your rights it is about protection Pinterest (in this case) from you; from becoming a co-defendant with deep pockets in a legal claim. The takedown order is a safe harbor provision for them... unlike popular belief DMCA does nothing for you but cause you "more work".

As you pointed out more work costs you time, and time is money, and that is a good reason to initiate legal action.

Contact an IP attorney for a free consultation and if you have/get an issuance number for copyright the firm can start charging a fee payable by defendants for unauthorize used. If they refuse to pay (thus claiming they are the rightful copyright holder) the law firm can then sue and get even more in damages.

Then the burden is no longer unfair.

liquidstar

2:31 am on Mar 29, 2012 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



First of all, no one is stealing anything, they're infringing - an also illegal, but totally different thing.

Mashable ran an article today on a guy making $1,000 a day on Pinterest linking to amazon products. Sure you can Don Quixote Pinterest, but long term, everyone has to adapt their business model. No industry has ever beaten the internet.

Any hotlinking, URL rewriting, etc is just a bandaid. You just can't beat it, you have to figure out how to work in an environment of infringement. Some bands are getting really good at this by using the "infringed" works as advertisement for their concerts and merchandise. In my industry, we love it when people "infringe" our work as we can count on 1 sale for every 13 repins.

fathom

2:40 am on Mar 29, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



In my industry, we love it when people "infringe" our work as we can count on 1 sale for every 13 repins.


Sounds like: "Turning disadvantage into advantage!"

helleborine

2:47 am on Mar 29, 2012 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Again, "Turning disadvantage into advantage!" doesn't work for me, I provide free content, I need traffic. I am not selling.

I may have to stop the free content and just sell in the future.

Sgt_Kickaxe

2:57 am on Mar 29, 2012 (gmt 0)



A bit of an eye opening article, I'm not sure how Pinterest will handle this but it may bring your some peace from filing DMCA notices.

[dailydot.com...]

when I started I did a test run to see what kind of traffic I could get. I manually posted pins for 4 hours straight and let them sit for a day. Next day I made something like $20 I think. So I decided to automate it cause I could see the huge potential this had.


Looks like a lot of "pins" may actually be spam.

fathom

3:14 am on Mar 29, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Again, "Turning disadvantage into advantage!" doesn't work for me, I provide free content, I need traffic. I am not selling.

I may have to stop the free content and just sell in the future.


LOL! You're joking right... you're selling your time (aren't you) for the traffic you sought which are actually the thieves you acquired.

incrediBILL

7:23 am on Mar 29, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Again, "Turning disadvantage into advantage!" doesn't work for me


First time I've ever encountered anyone that seems to be happier keeping lemons than making lemonade.

Just remember, the lemon tree [youtube.com] is very pretty but it's fruit you cannot eat.

pixar24

8:32 am on Mar 29, 2012 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Cloudflare ( free CDN service ) has an option to prevent your images to be used on Pinterest.
It's one of their apps called 'Scrapeshield', and you have an option to choose "Block Pinterest - Prevent your images from being "pinned"".

JAB Creations

9:26 am on Mar 29, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



helleborine, your work is not sacred or important to most of the internet, period. No amount of anger will negate that. Yes, there will be people who manually save your pictures and upload them to other sites. Yes, there are automated bots that have nothing but vicious intent. Learn and adapt or you'll be stuck in that endless cycle. Frankly that mentality that you're holding on to is just like that of the MPAA and RIAA, some of the if not the most hated groups on the internet because of not only their inability to adapt their brute-force business "tactics" though because they overvalue other people's hard work that they profit from. Your work is your own though and sure, you should get compensated for it though if you can't adapt your business tactics to the medium then either find another medium or another business.

- John

fathom

12:20 pm on Mar 29, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



the lemon tree is very pretty but it's fruit you cannot eat.


:) "CAN'T?"... :)

Play_Bach

12:48 pm on Mar 29, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



You don't have to watermark what's show on your site.

Put images in 2 directories called /site and /off-site and create a rewrite rule that redirects anything requesting the same image that isn't coming from your pages, to load them from the off-site directory.


@incrediBILL
+1
Good advice and worth considering. Implementing it might go a long way towards stemming the tide. Seriously, what do you have to lose?

frontpage

1:17 pm on Mar 29, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Here is the meta 

<meta name=”pinterest” content=”nopin” />

StoutFiles

1:32 pm on Mar 29, 2012 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I still don't know why no one else is discussing why the OP has thousands of static pages instead of a dynamic setup. Talk about a pain in the ass. If the OP converted to a dynamic setup then adding the meta tag would be a 10 second process and we would be at the bar right now.
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