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Instagram claims it now has the right to sell the photos you take with the popular app.
This is the first big change in policy for Instagram since being bought by Facebook earlier
this year. The company says it can now sell your photos
without compensating you, and there is no way for you to opt out -- unless you delete
your account before January 16, the day the new policy takes effect.
Instagram could sell a license to your photos to other companies for advertising purposes,
turning the app into a stock photo service. Maybe you took a photo at a midnight launch
of a big game like Black Ops 2, for example. Activision could buy a license to that photo
from Instagram and use it to promote its game. It comes as little surprise that there was
an immediate public backlash to this news. I can't help but be reminded of Netflix and
how it tarnished its own once-beloved public image when it raised prices without notice
and announced more than one ill-conceived spin-off company.
Back in 1999, Yahoo tried a similar stunt to Instagram when it claimed to own everything
people created on Geocities and could do whatever it wanted with their blog posts and photos.
But when people protested, Yahoo changed its mind a week later.
We'll see if Instagram has a change of heart, as well. For more on this story, stay tuned
to IGN.