Awesome pics but I do wonder why they tried to go this way. Surely they can't have been that imbecilic? Read an article on Pcpro which reckons the entire thing was to get some free advertising.

Yes but they had 30 000 accounts deleted so hardly good advertising.

I agree with the sentiment but then I do not copy music or games. Even though I do not have an Instagram account I understand why people are angry. Most people are not selling themselves as a product like celebrities. Celebrities will also probably get paid or do some deal in exchange for their "image rights", why should the rest of is be treated like product.

And... back-peddling finished:
http://blog.instagram.com/post/38421250 ... r-feedback



So, as you were, nothing to see here!
The stupid thing is, most people who have closed their account won't return, so all this little exercise has achieved is just losing them a good proportion of their members.

What do do have is a far better idea of who is likely to stick around - and that is good news for them as they now have a more accurate data set to present to advertisers.

It was a weeding process.

But what if it were the cream of the users that disappeared?

Kind of depends on your criteria. I'd imagine the people who are going to permanently up sticks at the sight of that licence agreement are also the least 'corporate friendly' consumers and thus not the best ones to advertise to.

Possibly but not necessarily. Instagram does not have advertising apparently so it cannot be proved.

They have to “monetize” their content somehow. Advertising is always the first port of call when such words are bandied around in the boardroom. As no one seems to have any imagination beyond advertising these days, this is how it’s going to end up. They have to pay for themselves somehow, and all the juicy content they have got for free is going to mean something to someone, and that is going to mean money for Instagram.

Somehow, your Instagram images will end up in some form of advertising display. It will likely follow the FaceBook pattern - your friends’ pictures will show up alongside some advert, implying that there is some form of endorsement. This is, apparently, more successful as that link between your friend and a product will carry more weight in your mind. So Instagram will no doubt be trying the same thing (considering they are owned by FaceBook, I am not surprised at this).

Those people who care about their pictures being used in such a fashion, or cared that their images were going to be sued for commercial purposes without any form of monetary reward, have bailed. The rest - people who don’t care about this, or don’t know have stayed, and will continue to upload the kinds of images they do. At some point, those images will be re-purposed.

What Instagram has done is filtered out the naysayers. Those left behind are more valuable - they are more likely to stay put when the adverts start.

If a person has liked a product on Facebook then I can understand that linkage. The issue has been the sale externally for any purpose that could be detrimental to the person involved. Some form of monetisation is necessary, and why I have turned off Ad blocking. The way the change in terms was described was that they could sell the images to absolutely anyone and you would not be paid. It could be resolved with by paying users in Facebook credits that could be redeemed in Farmville etc. Though there would have to be an opt out. People cannot be denied their rights by terms and conditions.

People are not being denied their rights. At the most basic level they have a right to either agree or disagree to the terms and conditions.
That right hasn't ever been taken away.
You agree, you stay put and continue doing what you were doing.
You don't agree, you either opt out (if that's available) or leave the service.

Mark

The linkage in Instagram would come via Geotagging. Say you take a photo in Costa, that is valuable information. Instagram knows it has a certain number of photos taken in Costas, and that could be used to sell advertising for that brand to Whitbread. In fact, with Instagram, “liking” (to use Facebook parlance) somewhere or something is as easy as taking a photo and posting it.

Geotagging will clearly be of benefit to see how many photos were taken near locations. It could also be used in a general way to show where there is a lot of foot traffic in terms of people sitting at taking photos which could be useful in determining where to open stores.