Am I Overreacting?

I'm thinking of deleting most of my Pinterest boards because of copyright issues. I haven't been contacted by anyone (I know, I know, Nero Wolfe shuddered at the use of 'contact' as a verb) to do so, but after reading of one blogger's experience, with pictures used on her blog, I'm becoming leery of continuing to 'pin' photos even with attribution - which I do try to include on every pin.

I kind of feel guilty since I have a great many followers on Pinterest and this is, in a way, a disservice to them. And really, how grave is the threat?

Well, grave or not, I have no wish to be sued.

Pinterest has been a lot of fun for me, a relaxing way to pass the time - most especially since I am first and foremost a visual sort of person. I look at it as scrap-booking without the actual hobby detritus.

I do not post my own photos because, frankly, I don't take that many interesting pix and more importantly, I still haven't mastered the fine art of posting pix online. I've been given instructions several times, but I just can't seem to get the hang of it - I'm not technically inclined and the whole process sort of scares me.

The same applies to my blog. I use photos I find online when I talk about movies, books or art - thinking that there should hardly be any copyright issues since I am, technically, providing publicity for these creators and criticism and/or opinion commentary should cover my butt in these instances. Creative appropriation and all. But what if I'm wrong?

I've checked over the Creative Commons info and really, if I had to check each and every pix I posted anywhere with some master list then I guess I'd rather not post any pix at all. This is not supposed to be work, after all.

I'm going to spend some time within the next few weeks going over all of my blog posts and deleting those which might have pushed the copyright boundaries. I will probably be re-designing my blog page as well. Hopefully I won't have to totally delete everything. In that case, I'll just shut down.

I have a great deal of fun with my blog, but if the fun becomes cumbersome, then that will be that. I simply can't imagine a blog without pictures, especially one devoted to art, books and movies.

I'm throwing this out for discussion since I really do value your opinions and want to know what you think about all this. I admit I'm feeling a bit dispirited.

Am I overreacting?

Well, I've just returned from deleting a bunch of boards on Pinterest and I feel even more dispirited. Such lovely stuff that I so enjoyed looking at and daydreaming about. Art resources for the future too. But I did what I thought was best. I've still got lots of boards left, so we'll see what happens.

Now to redesign the blog from scratch. Stay tuned.

The photo in my banner is actually my own from a while back. My daughter loaded it for me and I manipulated it to fit. It's a photo of my bulletin board.

P.S. I meant to thank Pat at Mille Fiori Favorit for the original link to Roni Loren's words of warning post and just totally let that slip through what passes for my mind these days. Apologies, Pat.