How to report a copy of your artwork on Pinterest

• The copyright owner, or a person authorised to act for them.
• Pinterest's copyright reporting form, linked from its copyright policy.
• Or a written report to Pinterest's designated copyright agent by mail, fax or email. The policy page gives the email address copyright@pinterest.com at the time of writing.

1. Identification of your copyrighted work.
2. Identification of the content on Pinterest, such as the URL of the Pin.
3. Your mailing address, phone number and email address.
4. A statement of good-faith belief that the use is not authorised.
5. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information is accurate and that you own the work or are authorised to act for the owner.
6. Your full legal name and an electronic or physical signature.

That is the same set of elements as in our DMCA notice template, which you can paste from.

For images, Pinterest lets you ask it to remove all Pins that contain the image. It says it can remove only identical copies, not resized or altered versions. So a cropped, resized or recoloured copy of your work may need its own report with its own URL.

Pinterest says it will take appropriate action, which may include disabling or removing the content. If it removes content, it may tell the person who saved it and may send them your notice, including your full legal name, the copyright owner and your contact details. Keep that in mind when you choose which address to give.

A user whose Pins are removed after a notice receives a strike, and Pinterest says too many removals can cost a user the ability to save Pins or lead to account disablement. It does not say how many strikes.

Affected users get instructions by email. Pinterest forwards a valid counter-notification to you. If you do not tell Pinterest that you have filed a court action, or a Copyright Claims Board action, to keep the content down, Pinterest reinstates it. It says this process can take up to 14 business days. Read what to do if a seller files a counter-notice before you decide.

Exclusive copyright owners can apply for access to Pinterest's Content Claiming Portal. Pinterest reviews applications. Approved rights holders upload their original content and choose whether it appears on Pinterest, and that choice applies to existing and future matches. The policy page does not say who is accepted, so treat it as something to apply for, not a promise.

Pinterest notes that false or bad-faith reports can carry legal and financial consequences. Report only what is yours and was not authorised. If a Pin links to a licensed use, a credit or a page where you gave permission, check first.

Searching Pinterest by hand does not scale. TraceMyAssets checks the artworks you register on a schedule and shows possible matches for you to review. We only see public pages that a search engine indexes, so some Pins will be missed, and a match is a possible match, never proof. You decide what to do and you send every report yourself. See the plans.

Does Pinterest remove resized copies too? Its policy says it can remove only identical copies when you ask for all Pins with an image. Report altered versions by their URLs.

Will the person who saved my work see my name? They may. Pinterest says it may send them the notice, including your full legal name and contact details.