While the ease of sharing photos over social media can be wonderful, there are some companies out to make money off of their customers in an unfair way . Their strategy has become all too common these days: gain popularity under one set of terms of service, then stealthily change the conditions to take away rights of the users.
Such is the case with the newest culprit: Instagram. An article in Photography Monthly warns readers that starting on January 16, 2013 Instagram will be able to freely sell and distribute its users images – without any notification nor its users earning so much as a penny from the sales. Imagine seeing your photography in advertisements, perhaps even in multimillion dollar national campaigns, without receiving any credit or royalties. This is taking money that rightfully belongs to the photographer, and using it to line Instagram’s greedy pockets. Or imagine seeing your images used as part of a campaign or cause that you oppose. Instagram is denying you the right to determine where and how your own images are used.
If this idea scares you, you only have a few days left in which to delete your account, or risk loosing control of your images forever.
Deleting photos just one day later will not prevent Instagram from continuously using any images you formerly had in your account. Once again, we will see an example of a social media site that doesn’t really delete your information from its servers when you close your account, but will continue to retain and use that information without your permission.
What will you do? Will you delete your account, or keep using Instagram? Why?
Related articles
- Instagram Boycott Now Includes National Geographic And Anonymous (forbes.com)
- Instagram’s rights issue from one artist’s perspective (smidgeonpress.wordpress.com)
- Instagram Will Basically Sign Your Life Away (mashable.com)
- Instagram star koci may delete account over new user terms (sfgate.com)
- Rich Gorman: Online Marketer Weighs in on Instagram Furor (prweb.com)
