Integrity Matters

KUTV :: News - Get Gephardt - Content On Pinterest Could Leave Users Violating Copyright Laws

So my new obsession/hobby may just be getting me int legal trouble?!  Yikes!  I hope this isn't the deal this report is making it out to be, but you never know anymore. The discovery of brilliant new recipes to try on my family has been a great resource from Pinterest, but if lawsuits are to follow because I "pinned" a photo of my favorite Mr. Darcy from a Jane Austen-fan blog, I might not see the benefits long term.

Ethical quandaries aside, we live in a litigious society.  Someone is always out looking for an easy buck, and for many people that means suing over their own dumb mistake if they think the other party has deep pockets.    Too bad, really.

Just last night I saw a report on this same news broadcast of the city the Logan honoring several citizens who, months ago now, pushed a burning car off an injured motorcyclist and saved his life.  There were a dozen or more people willing to get involved because it was the right thing to do.  But if they had thought much longer about it, there might have been some hesitancy to do anything for fear of the legal reprisals.  Luckily for the cyclist, that wasn't part of their thought process.

Doing the right thing, no matter who is watching, is still the right thing to do.  I learned that as a kid.  I relearn it when I try to teach my own kids that same principle.  Living with integrity isn't easy, but the more you do it, the more suited you become to continuing to do it.

Genius Golfer has had issues with software piracy that I never did.  But that principle of doing the right thing, because it is the right thing applies there too.  File "sharing" is really stealing if you take something that didn't belong to you in the first place...not matter how much you are helping the other person you are giving it to.  A few Christmases ago, I made a CD of crazy Christmas music for our neighbor gifts here on the Circle.  I paid for the individual songs on iTunes for each of those discs.  In that way, it was like designing my own playlist CD I could otherwise buy at the store.

But other files, programs, and intellectual property all began with someone, who deserves the credit.  Here's hoping the Pinterest issues will be settled before lawsuits are called for.  And, 99% of the time, I would guess the intent of the Pinterst users is not to infringe on copyrights but to share the information they found with others who might enjoy it.  Let's hope common sense becomes more and more common.