Instagram is at it again. They’re approaching their online community of professional photographers, photo enthusiasts, mom and pops, school kids and grannies, with a smile on their face and a hand shake. As their right hand squeezes down, like the grip of any crook who’s about to make off with a suitcase of cash, their left hand reaches around to your backside, fingers gently massaging your wallet or purse as they extract your credit cards and all banking information. Oh…. and he also took your last five bucks for the latte you planned to buy at Starbucks as you walk back to your apartment because your old car is in the shop for repairs. Too bad Instagram and Facebook will be getting paid for your photographs and not you. Just think how good that latte would have tasted. Now quit whining and start walking. It’s cold out here.
Ok, wakeup and smell the coffee, my little creative writing exercise is over.
Here’s the guy squeezing your right hand as he extracts cash from your pocket with his left hand. He’s the multibillion dollar business guy Mark Zuckerberg – the one who owns Instagram.
Now go get your latte with a double shot to get your adrenaline running so you can write Instagram to inform them you won’t be accepting their newly updated Terms of Service. The newly revised version that still gives them the right to do whatever they want with YOUR photographs. Even if you don’t care to make money from your pictures, do you want your private collection of images available for ads like Viagra, alcoholic products or cigarette promotions? Just think, you might get lucky and have one of your images of dear old Grandpa used in an advertising campaign for Depends. Wouldn’t that be the talk at the family Christmas gathering?
Tell Instagram NO to the newly revised Terms of Service by sending an email to Support@Instagram.com.
As you may recall, this issue first came up a few weeks back. You can read more about the original Kerfuffle, as my Canadian wife would call it, in an earlier blog post titled: Instagram/Facebook Apologizes. Backs Off New Policy to Hijack Your Photos. In short, they have changed almost nothing to their updated Terms of Service that was the inspiration for the first round of outrage. I was alerted to the useless new language on their revised Terms of Service agreement by PhotoBizCoach Beate Chelette’s excellent blog. She does a great job explaining it all. Make sure you take a look. Today it’s Instagram, most likely some time in the future it will be Facebook. Voice your displeasure to Instagram by sending them an email at Support@instagram.com.
In conclusion, there is something very fishy going on behind this Instagram deal. My guess is someone, probably Getty Images, has offered Instagram an amazing amount of cash if they (Getty or whoever) can gain access to the Instagram collection of pictures. I’m guessing it’s a deal something similar to the sneaky, disgusting arrangement Getty just signed with Google. More info on that in the blog post, Google and Getty Continue to Destroy the ability to make a living selling photos.
It’s hard to believe the pressure currently going on to acquire FREE or nearly FREE images. Actually, that is a stupid statement on my part. I can believe it, based on the fact that I earned a serious income from selling images for nearly 25 years. But once the cat got out of the bag, where clients no longer had to pay for photography, that income stream has virtually evaporated. I offer this historical perspective to try and impress on those who don’t know the fact that photography is VALUABLE! That’s why these big companies like Getty, Google and now Instagram are doing all they can to get their hands on as much visual cash/photographs as they can steal. That’s what these deals are all about. CASH. Keep in mind it will only happen if photographers allow it. Now go get crazy and write an email to support@instagram.com