Pinterest TOS – Users Beware

I found an informative article on Pinterest’s terms of service policy. Boston Business Journal criticized Pinterest for infringing upon users copyright ownership. By agreeing to the social media site’s terms and uploading an image, the user forfeits full copyright ownership and the company assumes the right to sell that image.

Here are two excerpts the editor from BBJ provided detailing Pinterest’s terms of service:

"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."

"... you represent and warrant that: (i) you either are the sole and exclusive owner of all Member Content that you make available through the Site, Application and Services or you have all rights, licenses, consents and releases that are necessary to grant to Cold Brew Labs the rights in such Member Content, as contemplated under these Terms."

(Source: bizjournals.com)

There is no doubt Pinterest has made its mark as one of the top social networking sites and has provided unique and effective ways for companies to promote their business but is it worth the cost of losing their intellectual property rights?