Pulling images from Pinterest to use in your marketing and website is one of those things that’s become so normalized, people usually don’t even stop to question it anymore. You see an aesthetic image on Pinterest, you save it, and it ends up on your website or in Canva graphic like it’s just a free resource sitting there for the taking.
Unfortunately, it’s not. Pinterest is a discovery platform, not a stock photo library – and using images pulled from it without permission is copyright infringement.
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Pinterest Doesn’t Own the Images On Pinterest – So It Can’t Give You Permission to Use Them
Every image on Pinterest is owned by whoever created it. It doesn’t change ownership if you pin it, saving it doesn’t give you a license for use, and downloading it doesn’t make it yours.
Pinterest’s own Terms of Service breaks it down: you’re granted a limited license to use the platform (pinning, repinning, sharing within Pinterest). That license does not extend to downloading images and using them commercially on your website, in your marketing, or in anything you’re building for a client.
There are the same Terms of Service that protects your content and pins when you market your business on your Pinterest account. Just as no one has the right to take your content, you don’t have permission to use theirs.
Even if it’s “public,” the public visibility is not the same as public domain. The moment you take someone’s image and use it without permission – regardless of how easy it was to find or download – you’re infringing on their copyright.
What Happens When You Use a Pinterest Image (And Why You Shouldn’t Just Risk It)
When you build a client’s website or create a carousel after pulling images from Pinterest to fill it out, you create a legal exposure for your client or (and, in some cases) yourself, depending on where you use it.
Photographers and content creators actively monitor for unauthorized use of their work, and reverse image search tools make it easy for them to find exactly where it’s showing up. When they do, the usual response is a demand letter – and statutory damages for copyright infringement can run into the thousands of dollars, per image.
It is limited to if the photographer registered the image with the U.S. Copyright Office before the infringement began (or within three months of first publication). Without that, remedies are limited to actual damages and profits. But, still.
I’m not saying this as a scare tactic, this happens everyday – it’s how copyright law works once someone decides to enforce their rights.
How to Avoid Copyright Infringement
The best way to avoid copyright infringement is to avoid using copyrighted material – which includes images pulled from Pinterest. Look for alternatives that allow licensed use of images like:
- Dupe Photos, a free image platform designed for lifestyle and creators (you can read their generous image license here)
- Haute Stock, editorial stock photography created for modern female founders (you can read my full review as a long-term member here)
- Élevae, high-quality editorial visuals including editorial stock images and videos (another personal favorite)
But you don’t have to use one of those three, there are plenty of other stock photo subscriptions available with licenses to use the images for what you need. Without infringing on their copyright.
Every use case is different — if you’re unsure whether a specific image is safe to use, check before you publish.
If You’re Realizing You Need to Audit Your Image Sourcing…
And if reading this makes you mentally scroll through your own website wondering what’s actually on there, you’re not alone – and it’s more common than you think. But, it’s not the hardest business mistake to clean up.
If you’d rather have someone actually walk through your site and content sourcing (and more) with you instead of guessing, book a CLO strategy session and let’s walk through it together.
