Instagram apologizes to users: We won't sell your photos

Posted by Dewa Sentana on 19th December, 2012

Instagram apologized to its users today, saying it will "remove" language from its legal terms that would have let it sell users' photos or use them in advertisements.
In a blog post this afternoon, Chief Executive Kevin Systrom said it's "our mistake that this language is confusing" and that the company is "working on updated language."
"Since making these changes, we've heard loud and clear that many users are confused and upset about what the changes mean," he wrote.

Instagram's terms of use agreement announced yesterday sparked a user revolt unprecedented in its history -- and prompted competitors to tout their own services as more user-protective. It came three months after Facebook completed its acquisition of the popular photo-sharing service, which has over 100 million users, and follows recent efforts by the social network to increase revenue.

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom speaks at the LeWeb conference in Paris.
No other photo-sharing service appears to have had a policy as broad as Instagram's now-abandoned language, which claimed the perpetual right to license users' photos to companies or any other organization, including for advertising purposes, which would effectively transform the Web site into the world's largest stock photo agency. A hotel in Hawaii, for instance, could have written a check to Instagram to license photos taken at its resort and then use them for its own purposes.

Google's policy, by contrast, does not permit the company to sell photographs uploaded through Picasa or Google+. Its policy says: "The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our services." Google now owns Instagram competitor Snapseed.

A Google spokesman told CNET this afternoon that Google+ and its other services protect their users' rights: "As our terms of service make clear, 'what belongs to you stays yours.' You own your files and control their sharing, plain and simple. Some of our services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In addition, on Google+ you can export your photos and other data whenever you'd like."

In 2007, Yahoo had a photo-rights flap of its own when its "brand portal" for the Nintendo Wii used Flickr images without permission, but it backed down soon after. Now Yahoo's policies for Flickr are photographer-friendly, saying the company can use the images "solely for the purpose for which such content was submitted or made available."

Last changed: 19th December, 2012 at 9:31 AM