No. No More. I’m Fed Up!
I loathe corporate America trying to own American culture. But I double loathe it when they try to own my contributions to culture and do not allow me to opt out!
I will not have it.
I’ve been a huge fan of Instagram, ever since it first arrived on the tech scene. I love that app. You have seen me post pictures to my sidebar from my Instagram app on my iPhone. But Instagram changed something on their servers and those photos, my photos, stopped appearing on my blog.
Facebook, the evil, evil Facebook, who makes money off of every user, bought Instagram for a whopping $1 billion (yes, with a “b”). Now, just 3 months after Facebook took ownership of Instagram, they have changed the terms of service for Instagram.
Every photo everyone uploads as of January 16, 2013, will become the property of Instagram (Facebook), who now claims the right to sell your photos without your knowledge or consent (you give your consent when you click “agree” to sign up or if you continue use after 1/16/13). Facebook will not pay you anything for your photos. You can only opt out by deleting your account before 1/16/13. If you use Instagram on 1/16/13 and then delete your account on 1/17/13, they own all of your photos!
Instagram just committed suicide!
Realizing they didn’t get away with this, Instagram (Facebook) is rethinking the language used in their new terms of service. Oops! Too late. You people aren’t stupid. You just got caught. Maybe you even anticipated this. Maybe this is just step one of a multistep process scheduled to play out over 2013.
Other important voices on this matter include photographer Thomas Hawk and Wired.
I am downloading all of MY Instagram photos and deleting my Instagram account now. Join me. Send them a clear message.
- I used Instadesk (Mac app – others: Instabackup) to download all of my Instagram photos. You could use a free service like Instaport or Copygram. (Be patient. Instaport’s servers are being hammered right now as people are fleeing the money grubbing Facebook.)
- Here is the help article from Instagram on how to delete your account: http://help.instagram.com/customer/portal/articles/95760
- Here is the URL to delete your account: https://instagram.com/accounts/remove/request/
Facebook, you will NOT own my culture, my photos, my experiences.
Mat, at Wired, puts it well:
And so I quit Instagram on principle. Because I’m tired of contributing to the commodification of my own existence. I’m not a pork belly, or a barrel of oil. I’m tired of clicking on agree, when I vehemently oppose. I’m tired of saying yes, when I want to say no.”
If Facebook pisses me off one more time, I’m deleting my entire Facebook account.
[This change] means that a hotel in Hawaii, for instance, could write a check to Facebook to license photos taken at its resort and use them on its Web site, in TV ads, in glossy brochures, and so on — without paying any money to the Instagram user who took the photo. The language would include not only photos of picturesque sunsets on Waikiki, but also images of young children frolicking on the beach, a result that parents might not expect, and which could trigger state privacy laws.
But Facebook is banking on people not wanting to delete 5,000,000,000 photos they have uploaded. Facebook thinks they have users between a rock and a hard place. They hope you don’t realize you have other choices! They are soft-selling the whole fiasco with carefully chosen words, “clarify,” “never intended,” “make clearer.” Hog wash. They want money, and if they have to sell you to get it, whatever…
Some suggestions: Flickr just released an app. I love and have started exclusively using KitCam. It has numerous sharing options and, especially in conjunction with photoforge2 is a vastly better app than Instagram!
Click to visit their site.
Related articles
- How to download your entire Instagram account (deathandtaxesmag.com)
- Download your Instagram photos and delete your account (sciencetext.com)
- Instagram Can Now Sell Your Photos Without You Knowing (fox4kc.com)
- Facebook’s Instagram monetization plan: License users’ photos without paying for them (bgr.com)
- Instagram’s Absurd New Terms of Use Agreement Is Already Being Called Its ‘Suicide Note’ (gawker.com)
Related posts previously published @tt.us:
Thanks for explaining this to the non-techie crowd…I just informed my oldest who does have an account. Much appreciated and noted.