I’ve been a Flickr user for almost 8 years now — a paid Pro user the whole time (the first year was a gift) — and while I have been disappointed for a while (Yahoo! seemed to have abandoned the service after buying it), I was happy to forgive everything when the new Flickr app launched recently. I downloaded it as soon as I saw it was available and snapped a photo then played with the filters. “Just like Instagram,” I thought. The resulting image is this charming little demon.
That was six days ago and news slowly spread about the app and I watched as my contact feed slowly became active again.
Then today, the internet EXPLODED when Instagram announced changes to its Terms of Service (TOS). Initial responses were of the hair-on-fire variety with people trying to figure out how to export all their photos and delete their accounts.
People were asking me whether I would still use Instagram. I said no, because I never have. I did download the app when it was released for Android but deleted it 48 hours later, without ever taking a photo, when it was announced Mr. Zuckerberg and his team had purchased the service.
Throughout the day, stories continued to fill my Facebook wall and finally Instagram head issued a “we’re listening” post that was somewhere between a correction and a retraction with a hint of mea culpa thrown in.
Mike summed it up nicely,
“It’s a weird assisted faceplant: Last week, Flickr renewed itself by releasing a good mobile app. This week, Instagram says it’s TOS is changing to sour most of its users. It’s like Instagram saw competition coming and burned their own crops.”
Anyone I know who used the service and cares about copyright was either taking action or doing more research but I think that if the big names and celebrities jump ship, that will be the end of the service. Wil Wheaton reinvigorated his Flickr feed when he discovered the Flickr app yesterday; National Geographic — a BIG player in the Instagram world — ceased uploads, presumably while they waited for their lawyers to figure out what the TOS really meant for their images. It’ll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow after the dust has settled.
So, is this just a blip or the tipping point? Time will tell.
Read it for yourself:
- An early piece from CNET, “Instagram says it now has the right to sell your photos“
- The Verge countered, “No, Instagram can’t sell your photos: what the new terms of service really mean“
- Wired covered both sides, “How to Download Your Instagram Photos and Kill Your Account,” and “Instagram Puts a Sunny Filter on Its Terms of Service“