Forums » Art & Creativity » Art Theft (maybe?) advice?

Hello,

I am not familiar with pinterest but today I stumbled upon a couple of silly comics I drew several years ago in high school on Pinterest. They're fanart comics but they're something I had (at the time) worked hard on. (They look awful to me now). Now when you click it, it goes back to my deviant art, and the person does have me listed as they author. But when I look below the comic it says found on knil-maloon.deviantart.com ( https://www.pinterest.com/pin/354025220687679963/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/354025220687679963/ ) This is where I get confused and upset. I am also upset about no one asking for my permission to put it on pinterest. I guess what I am asking: is this art theft? If its not okay then-- I mean I guess it links back to me when you click it, but I don't understand Pinterest enough to know if I should be flagging it or not?
Any help would be great.

Hi,

I use Pinterest and it's not normal to ask permission before pinning something. The default thing Pinterest does is that it automatically links to the original site/picture, and a lot of people either see this as gaining exposure for their business and stuff, or they outright set up accounts for their businesses and pin their stuff there. I don't really use Pinterest for art, though - mainly things like interesting outfits from various shops and museums that might be inspiring for RPs and it's convenient to have them in one place. So I have no idea what general unwritten rules might apply when people pin digital art.

If you have any problem at all with your art being pinned, by all means contact Pinterest and they'll take it down They do that very routinely.

Edited: I don't think the user suffers any penalty for having their pin taken down, or anything like that.

Nope, this is not art theft. This is the same as sharing your comic on Facebook, Twitter or a blog. They're not taking claim on your art in any shape or form and they're not selling it. Pinning is really just another form of sharing a link to another site while displaying an/the image from that site as reference. You're welcome to take Alecia's advice and contact Pinterest to have it taken down, but I wouldn't worry too much about it.

As for why it was found on that other person's DA, there's a 99% chance that your comic showed up on that person's profile, possibly through listing your art similar to an ad/the "Show me more like this" feature they have. DA is weird that way in showing 'similar to this deviation' stuff. Which means that if someone pins your deviation through someone else's profile, it gets linked back that way. I'm fairly sure this is what's happening, it's an automated process and a weird combo of DA and Pinterest's mechanics.

Edit: at the top right of *any* Deviation on DA there is a button that shares the submission to a pin, or FB, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit and more, in case you were wondering. You can't really stop people from Pinning your submissions any more than you can stop them from sharing them to FB, I'm afraid.

Thanks everyone. Like I said I am not an avid pinterest user . Anyways, I wont have them take it down if its just like sharing on FB. If thats the case then its fine. I guess what I was wondering is if they saved the image and then posted on pinterest as their own (even though they linked back to me)-- Now that it has been explained to me, I now know thats not how it works. Thanks for your input!

I just pinned your submission through the button on DA:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/311241024227927054/

Didn't have to save it, and it automatically links back to the submission. I did this directly from your submission.

Thank you for showing me ;_;

Pinning something on Pinterest is tantamount to sharing it on Facebook- it says "I think this is awesome and I want to either share it or link it for my own reference at a later time." It's actually a form of flattery.