The time has come the walrus said to speak of many things…Ok it was 3am when these thoughts coalesced.
A little niggle, a troubled thought late at night has grown into a full-sized concern.

Sometime last year I received an invite to Pinterest and created boards and quickly became addicted. Yes, just like you. And like Stephanie @professors_wife and on the digital mom blog 10 signs you are addicted. 

But it’s fun right? it’s easy,it’s cool and hot at the same time.  You don’t have to think you just look and oo and ahhh

I invited others. I loved what I saw.

This year (2012) I saw a way to incorporate it here at ‘A String of Pearls’ and installed the plugin to assist you to pin images to your boards, and to show all of you images I liked, such as the recent Oscar pictures.

Recently I happened across ‘ddk’s‘ article ‘Why I tearfully deleted my Pinterest…‘   and my disquiet began. I read the Boston Business Journal  Galen Moore’s considerations.  I’ve read ‘Eudemic’s‘ thoughts on the issues.

I actually went to the Term of Use and read them. More deep thinking followed. I soon knew what I needed  to do. I know myself well enough to know the pattern.

A discussion with Kylie my Team Writer from Manchester bought the knowledge that she too had reached the same conclusion. Albeit from a different path. Kylie has written ‘The Problems with Pinterest.‘

WE ARE LEAVING PINTEREST FOR LEGAL & ETHICAL REASONS.

Actually I have left, and I’m sure Kylie has too.

The breaking of Copyright, or the risk of doing so; the ethics of doing so and the challenge to our personal sense of  integrity has bought us to taking this action.

Basically it is Pinterest versus Conscience. For me, and it turns out for Kylie and increasingly for others this is a choice easily made.
My role here as creator, editor and publisher is not my main creative outlet. I am first and foremost a writer. (I am half way through a trilogy plus 1/3 into another unexpected work) And as such, the issue of copyright is important to me, as it is to all to artists (I use the term broadly, painters, photographers, crafters of all types. Basically if you can make it and I can see it, hear it etc you are an artist to me.) I cannot therefore be part of something that, for now, risks other’s copyright, Your copyright, that is the very right to own the results of your inspiration, and the manifestations of your imagination, skill and passion. Not to mention hard work.
If and when the TOU (Terms of Use)  change we will be delighted to return. It was suggested that I simply await the legal changes that will surely come, but I cannot find it in myself to do that. For the above reasons.
Finally, yet nonetheless importantly,  if any of our Photographer’s of the Month, or indeed any other Guests have had their original images pinned or shared beyond here, without due credit, I apologise.

Comments are welcome.

(The update of The No-Sugar Experiment page will occur in 24 hours.)