Photographer Sues Pinterest for Copyright Infringement

A fine art photographer in Seattle, Christopher Boffoli, has filed suit against Pinterest for infringement of copyright in his photographs. This suit is the most recent in a series Boffoli has filed against Twitter, Google, Imgur, and other websites for copyright infringement based on the failure to remove his photographs from their sites. Under current law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), internet service providers and other intermediaries are exempt from liability for the copyright infringement of users if the site removes the copyrighted material on request by the copyright holder. However, according to the complaint filed against Pinterest, Boffoli claims that despite submitting multiple DMCA-compliant takedown requests since August, 2014, at least 56 of his photographs have not been removed and are still accessible on Pinterest’s server.

By permitting access to his work without attribution, Boffoli loses any potential traffic to his own website. Boffoli has attempted to articulate the impact of piracy on the creators of artwork. He told MyNorthwest.com, “[P]eople aren’t going to my website because they can go to Pinterest and see these images, out of context, a lot of times without attribution. It doesn’t help me the least if people don’t know who created the image.  I worked 30 years to hone my craft. I spend a lot of time working on these images. I use a lot of expensive equipment. Why should anybody else profit from my work?… I don’t think these people ever think that when you’re downloading, pirating that film, you’re stealing from a lot of people that depend on this for their livelihood.

Boffoli’s other suits were settled out of court under undisclosed terms. If artists must take such drastic measures to protect copyright in their work, the DMCA “notice and takedown” provisions may need to be revisited.

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