Monday, May 21, 2012

Pinned and Slightly Pissed


If I post something on this blog or on Pinterest I expect it to be pinned.
BUT

As part of the Welcome Mat subscription I provide about 10 or 12 videos a year on varying topics, some tied to the lessons I give there, some showing dyeing and other good tricks of hooking, all with the same intention, to provide good info for my subscribers.

As part of the great service on the Mat  I offer a free month perusal, no holes barred, you can look everywhere and see everything.

In the last 6 months someone joined the Mat for their free month.
While there they pinned several videos which said right under the title: for Welcome Mat subscribers only.
They never did get a subscription.
And the videos were pinned and repinned and repinned.

On the Mat on every page it is clearly stated:

Contents of the pages of the Welcome Mat remain the property of the authors or artists and cannot be printed, copied, saved or stored without the express permission of that originator.


Last night I used some code to disallow pinning from the Mat.
And I realize  getting back my property is like trying to gather up spilled tea from an oriental rug and put it back in the cup. But I think we can do a few things.


I asked the pinners who had these videos on their boards please remove them so I can act in an honourable way towards my paid subscribers.
It was somewhat akin to making The Matters something to tuck under their pillow only to see it kicked down Main Street.

I'm also going to ask you a few things; I think for these things to stop we need to say and do something.

If you see my videos pinned, unless the title mentions RHM you can be assured it is a Welcome Mat production.
Let me know please, or if you are brave, let the pinner know yourself by commenting on it.
Maybe you could say:

Did you know this video was not released for public viewing? The original pinner pirated it. I suggest you delete it.

Also irritating was seeing one of my rugs pinned ad infinitum with the title "hooked rug".
Here is the comment I added to that:
 This rug is hooked by me, it's title is, And The Day Came, please help stop the anonymous pinning of artwork.

It would be good if we all stop pinning anonymous work and when we see this let the original pinner know, ahem, your slip is showing.

Another trend I noticed was the gay abandon of  many rug teachers pinning artwork without credits from other disciplines. The video pinner was also a teacher, that is effing disappointing behaviour.
Pinterest has serious guidelines about the unsanctioned use of intellectual property. It is making me look at all my pins pretty hard.


It is fun but only if used with common sense. 
AND it is not Pinterest who is at fault here, it is the users.

I like the idea of peer pressure being the best resource.  

Tell me what you think of all this.
It has made me seriously rethink my free month policy among others things.





6 comments:

  1. Wanda - I am someone who benefited from the free month "try before you buy" recently, and it did increase my willingness to give your site a look. Since then, I have converted to a real subscriber. That being said, I think one thing you could do is be more explicit on the privileges associated with the membership (both free and otherwise) when we SIGN UP for the free month. Perhaps I am wishful, but I do not think folks are intentionally trying to be thoughtless, they just haven't been exposed to the depth of the issue or the impact on your business. I don't think the issues has yet escalated in the consciousness of everyone who uses the internet.

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  2. Kay, Thanks for letting me know. I'm thinking of partitioning parts of the Mat for subscribers only. This would include dyeing stuff , videos, free classes and patterns.
    That might help.
    I value your input.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Checked my boards in a panic, but all the videos are all from youtube. Whew...

    I found a copyright violation of one of my patterns via pinterest that I would never have found because it was on a membership site (not yours). It made me more emotional than I would have expected so I understand your feelings. It turned out to be a new hooker who saw my rug "somewhere" and decided to copy the border and some of the motifs and rearranged them. She thought she had changed it enough, but it was clearly recognizable.

    She removed it from the membership website, but it was already in the stream with no way to remove it.

    I found this website. See #5. I checked my site and most photos do NOT have any attribution back to me. I've got some commenting to do.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Cindi, good to hear from you.
    I only have one video that is public, Spot Dyeing for RHM.
    These rest you may see from You Tube are private. Because the person pinned them from inside the Mat it meant the link was present, this made it's privacy code embedded redundant.
    So if you have videos from The Wandaway Studio that isn't about spot dyeing for RHM on Pinterest you are a pirate!
    Thank you so much for that link, I've read it.
    I sent in a notice to pinterest organizers requesting they remove them, because for a week I've asked people to remove them and they are not.
    Surprising but true!

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  5. Cindi, I though you might want to know.... on pinterest if you send the same message many times you will be blocked from commenting as a spammer.
    That happened to me. I submitted this ticket today:

    I have been blocked from commenting. Recently I'd found pirated content from my private website. www.thewelcomemat.ning.com and the WandaWay Studio in Youtube. I used the code you provide to stop pinning from sites that don't want it. Before it was available or I was aware of it instructional videos people pay for were pinned, out in the wide blue yonder for all to see. When I saw it I posted comments letting people know it was pirated and respectfully asked them to delete them. I had to send the same comment many times.
    I had also found my artwork pinned with credit or link backs. Also I sent the same message many times.
    Hence the blocking.

    I have submitted a request to have this pirated content removed by Pinterest to your support team about 4 days ago and heard nothing back yet.

    The videos in question are not public property are made for the use of my paid subscribers. They are marked as such in youtube.
    But because the link carried over from the original pinner I'm out of luck.
    I need help with this please. It is hard to keep on top of every nuance new innovations bring.

    Thank you for your attention to all these matters.
    Wanda Kerr
    wlm@bmts.com

    I'll keep you all updated.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gosh Wanda, so much to keep track of now. I rushed to Pinterest to be sure I haven't repinned those videos. It sure is hard to keep track of every "nuance" as you say. I know some of my work is repinned without credit and it really peeves me. I try to do the same thing as you, add a comment. You wrote a great post and I hope you get everyone's attention, it's important! Good for you! You work hard, and I like your work!

    ReplyDelete