DeeCee - 3:06 pm on Mar 29, 2012 (gmt 0)

One of the other bad things about Pinterest, on the side of theft of course, is that they KNOW that since the images have a high likelihood of being stolen, they copy the images in full-size to their own database. Obviously to prevent the original site from "damaging" Cold Brew Labs' web-site by blocking the images AFTER they have been used to create a pin-board. As they surely would, if they were hot-linked.

As long as their robot use the agent-string with Pinterest in it, the .htaccess code above will prevent their bots from snatching that first copy of an image. Nothing prevents the user from, upon seeing that failure, manually taking your image and uploading it, if they really want it.

In either case Pinterest is basing their business on theft. My estimate is still the same. In their current form, they will not survive too long. Soon only marketers and sellers (who actually might own their images) will be able to use Pinterest, which will automatically send the 14 Mill eyeballs they all want scurrying for the hills.

Pinterest is also starting to have other negative side-effects. My spam-blocker software is catching more and more Blog Spam that points directly to Pinboards containing merely an advertising image linking to their real web-site. Pinterest simply becoming a redirect, hiding what would otherwise be a direct advertising link to the Spammers own site.

I guess the spammers think that by carrying a Pinterest link, they are less likely to be blocked out as Spam. (Not so. :))