Content-sharing website Pinterest today emailed members to inform them that it has changed its Terms of Service. The rapidly-growing social site had drawn the ire of many copyright holders and users in recent days, with its old terms that stated that by pinning something on its site users were giving Pinterest the right to sell the content on.
The old terms had put many users off, and created much controversy over copyright of third parties whose content was pinned by another user. Photo-sharing site Flickr, for example, recently blocked Pinterest users from pinning content from its site.
“Our original Terms stated that by posting content to Pinterest you grant Pinterest the right for to sell your content,” today’s email said. “Selling content was never our intention and we removed this from our updated Terms.”
The email, signed by co-founder Ben Silbermann and the Pinterest team, also stated that it had also “released simpler tools for anyone to report alleged copyright or trademark infringements”.
The new Terms of Service come into effect on April 6.
