Pinterest

I love Pinterest. I, like the rest of you, can spend hours upon hours there. One of my favorite Saturday morning activities, in fact, is doing just that: coffee, Pinterest, couch. I could sit there for hours. It’s better than re-runs of Friends (ok, maybe not quite).

Just before I got on (you can follow me there if you like, @likesoatmeal) I read Diane of Craftypod’s post about Pinterest and copyright/credit-giving. It sat in the back of my mind as I clicked through uncredited after uncredited photo. I decided I would always put the title of the blog I got my inspiration from in each pin, and I have. I try not to repin, which isn’t very social of me, because I want to know where everything comes from.

But I also felt a fair bit of sympathy for non-credit-givers. It doesn’t say anywhere on Pinterest “CREDIT YOUR SOURCES!” And as an English composition TA, I have experienced firsthand how difficult the concept of giving proper credit is (the terror of plagiarism haunts students more than anything else).

Yesterday, I read this article about how Pinterest violates copyright, or allows people to violate it, while getting off scot-free. The guilt was official: guys, you should really credit your pins! It’s not hard, and besides, then you’ll see what blog your awesome tutorial for Calvin and Hobbes snowman truffles came from and when you’re trolling the internet for new tutorials, you can hop back over there and see what’s new!

Maybe it’s just the composition teacher in me, but I don’t give anyone a fail for not doing this. Just like plagiarism in college, there’s no course in internet source-crediting. But, it seems as though going forward, mentioning where you got your pin is a good thing to do. Maybe it will discourage websites from putting “nopin” code into their sites and allow us to keep creating awesome pinboards for cake.