Instagram

[RL7836]

I suspect that by now, everyone in the known world, is aware that Instagram has changed it's terms of service. I find it amusing (actually closer to borderline hilarious) that a program that deals with photography will just change it's contract with it's users so it can use (or sell to others to use) any Instagram photograph (& naturally - with no compensation).

The new terms of service:

You agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.

What impresses me even more however, is that this miniscule little change was instituted by it's parent - a company well known for showing complete & total respect for it's user's privacy, and not known for selling user information to corporate goons (apologies for blatant sarcasm). Yup - the parent company is Facebook.

A Gizmodo columnist generated a piece supporting the move. While mildly interesting, the comments after the piece show how users really feel - as well as bringing up several relevant issues.

While I've never used Instagram (but am familiar with the program), I'm interested in how people here feel about this change. I'd also like to hear of some (non-sarcastic) rationales that legitimately support the move.

 

[Wire Man]

I knew there was a reason to not use it.

From what I learned in my college classes, this goes against copyright laws.

 

[amphirion]

instagram? i thought that was pintrest.
anywho, i am an instagram user, and was saddened by this little tidbit of news today. contemplating whether to go through (never publish super awesome photos ever again) or just say no (close account). they're giving us up till Jan 13th to make up our minds, to delete our accounts and they wont be able to use past photos. period.

 

[swords]

I've never used Instagram or Pinterest, are they the same as Facebook and Myspace?

 

[RL7836]

I've never used Instagram or Pinterest, are they the same as Facebook and Myspace?

Instagram is an app that lets you add effects to a pic & share it with others - apparently a very popular app (80 million users) ... (wiki) or (iTunes)

 

[swords]

Ah, like an online photoshop... It's not surprising they will appropriate peoples images if they like them or can sell them to an advertiser. These companies (websites) give people a free account, they expect something back. eBay will re-use your product images unless you opted out of their image use program some time ago. Facebook and Myspace can sell your photos to advertisers and you'll wind up on a viagra ad smiling and giving the thumbs up...

Southpark (which I don't watch regularly) even had an episode about terms of use agreements and how nobody reads them, of if they do, aren't usually a lawyer who could decipher it anyway. Cracked.com also had an article about all the stuff hidden in user agreements folks probably don't know is there.

 

[lance]

This seems pretty interesting and risky for a company like this to do. I guess if you don't want anything of yours to be taken, you could always trademark your username and hide copyrights in the corner of the photo, but I don't know how that'll battle against their new terms of service. Most users of instagram (as far as I can tell from observing the social norm at my school) are still pretty young, so this doesn't surprise me that much.

 

[Peatmoss]

Baaaaaackpedaling!

http://www.petapixel.com/2012/12/18/instagram-responds-to-controversy-over-new-tos-promises-changes/


I use the instagrams. Cool little program...

 

[Whimgrinder]

Re Instagram: I chose not to use Instagram back when many people i knew were jumping on that bandwagon, in part because the TOS didn't meet my criteria for a "free" service: I felt there was an opportunity to have my photos used in ways I did not approve of. (The other reason was that I felt the filters were very gimmicky and unlikely to have lasting appeal) Turns out I had a right to be concerned.

I've generally advocated for paid services, otherwise, you should be asking the "what's in it for the provider?" question. And there is always something in it for the service provider, or they wouldn't be offering it for free. There are too many opportunities to get taken advantage of in these scenarios, and so I avoid things like Facebook and the more aggressive membership abusers. Instagram had policies I was uncomfortable with from the beginning and so I never signed up for that one, choosing Hipstamatic instead, because I had to pay something to use it, and so those people had less leverage to take advantage of my work.

It's interesting that entities like Facebook never seem to grasp the fact that rolling out inappropriate policies that offend their users sensibilities always result in a public, and often very aggressive/angry backlash. They will rescind this policy in great haste, you'll see. I would still recommend ditching Instagram anyways, because we all know the F-book has a long and rich history of intentionally eroding their users privacy and rights. It's not like a single rewrite of the TOS will fix the real problem.

 

[AshG2385]

I read about it today, I also backed up and closed my Instagram account today.
I have Photoshop on my PC, but I really liked Instagrams app on my Iphone for editing. I had some really neat photos on there that I'd forgotten about too.