If you are a member of Pinterest you should have received the email below this morning.  They have definitely made progress with some of the updates, especially clarifying their intent with the content, not allowing certain types of pins, and looking forward as they expand.  However, many uses may get lost in the lists under Acceptable Use Policy.  Not unlike many companies in the online world, they have to cover their….backside.  And rightly so.  While they have tried to make the wording easy for users to understand, we know there are going to be many different interpretations of some of these line-items.

Regarding the Copyright issues, watch for our next blog post which will be co-written with Kelcey Patrick-Ferree, a business attorney focused on internet and social media law.

I’m still a huge fan of Pinterest, and I encourage them to stay on top of these issues, while continuing to push forward with enhancements to the site.  I encourage Pinterest users to be mindful and use common sense.  Yes, I know that has many interpretations as well 😉  *Pin On*

Updated Terms of Service

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been working on an update to our Terms. When we first launched Pinterest, we used a standard set of Terms. We think that the updated Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, and Privacy Policy are easier to understand and better reflect the direction our company is headed in the future. We’d encourage you to read these changes in their entirety, but we thought there were a few changes worth noting.

• Our original Terms stated that by posting content to Pinterest you grant Pinterest the right for to sell your content. Selling content was never our intention and we removed this from our updated Terms.
• We updated our Acceptable Use Policy and we will not allow pins that explicitly encourage self-harm or self-abuse.
• We released simpler tools for anyone to report alleged copyright or trademark infringements.
• Finally, we added language that will pave the way for new features such as a Pinterest API and Private Pinboards.

We think these changes are important and we encourage you to review the new documents here. These terms will go into effect for all users on April 6, 2012.

Like everything at Pinterest, these updates are a work in progress that we will continue to improve upon. We’re working hard to make Pinterest the best place for you to find inspiration from people who share your interest. We’ve gotten a lot of help from our community as we’ve crafted these Terms.

Thanks!

Ben & the Pinterest Team