Is Pinterest the next Napster?

Is someone running a negative PR campaign against Pinterest? Or is this really <i>all</i> an organic result of the uncriticalthinking media echo chamber?

This is getting absurd. Many sites cache images. Maybe somebody should come up with an images/content cache agreement that content owners can opt into. Not opting in means no love from Facebook, Google images, Pintrest, and the thousands of other traffic sources.

If that's the case, then Imgur/Reddit is like the new pirate bay. They've been rehosting images (often without attribution, although not maliciously -- someone usually provides it) for years.

probably not. see Perfect 10 vs Google:<p><a href="https://www.eff.org/cases/perfect-10-v-google" rel="nofollow">https://www.eff.org/cases/perfect-10-v-google</a>

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridges_Law_of_Headlines" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridges_Law_of_Headlines</a>

pinterest enables people to express themselves using images found on the web. The images are hosted by someone, so that others can look at them. Now, pinterest enables someone to do something with these images, other than just looking at them.

I'm joining Pinterest after reading.....

on the other note, it just shows how crucial to the success of your startup is timing. Have Youtube founders set it up today, they would have rotten in jail next to DotCom and most likely Rick O'Dwyer. Instead, they got $1.6B buyout offer.

The mass of content owners that could pursue Pinterest aren't organized into an effective cartel. So no, it's not likely Pinterest is going to get assaulted the same way Napster did.<p>That doesn't stop one or two larger content owners from hitting them hard of course. Most likely by the time any of this comes to legal blows Pinterest will have figured out a means to dance around the technicalities of it all. Worst case scenario for Pinterest is that they see a YouTube-like run-in with a media company.<p>The media monsters (eg WSJ, Murdoch) smell that someone out there might, just maybe, be making some money off something they own somewhere, maybe, kinda sorta, possibly. A hint of it is all those animals need. So they're sending out trial balloons for whether there's anything to sue about to grab some cash with no effort.<p>You have to understand, the first thing these guys think when they see something new like a Twitter or Facebook or Pinterest or Tumblr is (do I): partner with it, ignore it, sue it, buy it. You're going to fall into one of those categories.