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December 18, 2012

CNET Community
Photo-sharing site says it now has the right to sell your photos

Dear CNET members,

Imagine this: you're at a beach in Hawaii, snapping photos of your family having the time of their lives. Later, you upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site to show your family and friends on your social network, not giving it a second thought. Two years from now, you go to a travel site to book another trip to Hawaii, and lo and behold, you see a familiar-looking photo in an advertisement for the Hawaii resort you are looking into. You look a bit closer and you realize that in the advertisement is a picture of your kids at the beach that you took two years ago! You wrack your brains trying to figure out how it happened, who did it, and why.

If you think this scenario is a bit frightening or just can't be, you better take note of this report by CNET writer Declan McCullagh: "Instagram says it now has the right to sell your photos." Declan reports that with the first major policy shift since Facebook bought the photo-sharing site, Instagram claims the right to sell users' photos without payment or notification. And if you don't opt out of this by deleting your Instagram account by January 16, you can't opt out of it afterward.

So what do you think of this new policy? Do you care that your photos could potentially be used or sold for commercial purposes without being notified? Or do you believe that this is just part of business, and because it's a free site and the photos that you post on Instagram are made public, this shouldn't be a shock to anyone? If you are a user of Instagram, are you going to opt out before the deadline? If you aren't a user of Instagram, does this change how you would use photo-sharing sites in general, and how so? Read Declan's article and share how you feel!
Lee Koo

Lee Koo
Community manager

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From our community
  Here's what some of your fellow members had to say about this week's topic:
Instagram says it now has the right to sell your photos
  "Stop moaning. Its a free app with millions of users - how do you expect a company to keep afloat offering a free service with continual updates hosting so much content? If you are all photographers whose IG pics are how you make your living then fair enough but none of you are, are you? so you're not..."   Read more    
Posted by Jarvdesign
    "The part that worries me even more than that is that a lot of KIDS are on Instagram, posting photos of themselves (and their friends) left and right. Instagram is currently the biggest social media site (bigger than Facebook) for my 12-year-old daughter..."   Read more  
Posted by instamom
  "As an artist, I am really upset with this. I post pictures of MY art that I myself created on Instragram to allow my family, friends, acquaintances and fellow artists to see my work, including progress as people always ask to watch my art come to life while I'm drawing or painting. This is horrible of Instagram and..."   Read more    
Posted by GondorArt
    "For those of you playing the "it's a free service card", the only reason this "free service" is sustainable is because users like us generate the content. I'm okay with data mining, I'm okay with revenue-sharing, and I'm okay with targeted ads. These are a fair price to pay for free content. Telling me that everything I've ever created and ever will create no longer belongs..."   Read more  
Posted by MarcNash
  Read all members' responses

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