According to Venture Beat, Flickr has implemented the new Pinterest security feature that does not allow Pinterest users to "pin" copyrighted or otherwise not-to-be-shared pictures on the Pinterest service. (via Techmeme)
If you have a website or blog and want to block or encourage "pins" for your pictures (depending on your disposition to this new thing), here is the Pinterest FAQ page with details on how to do that.
Just like most new disruptive things that come out of left field on the internets, there are almost always pros and cons, and a savvy photographer is one that maximizes the pros and minimizes the cons. For example, depending on a photographer's particular strategic and marketing circumstances, Pinterest could be a good source for viral promotion.
If you follow the various tech-business and start-up blogs or the headlines at Techmeme, you probably heard of Pinterest, one of the trendy start-ups du jour. This is obviously not a start-up blog, so why are we mentioning it? Answer: because it decidedly intersects with the world of photographers.
As the name hints, Pinterest lets you "pin" pictures of "interest" you find while surfing around the internets. The pinned pictures are republished on the Pinterest website. Here is an example, someone liked this popcorn cupcake picture (buttery vs buttery bokeh) and "pinned" it to Pinterest.
This can obviously lead to unauthorized republication of copyrighted and non-public-domain works. The on-going controversy and situation so far is summarized in a detailed article at The Verge, with a robust discussion in the The Verge comments.