Instant Nightmare

December 19, 2012

By Laura Brauer

In one fell swoop one of our most beloved camera phone apps went from cherished to banished yesterday. Our social media feeds were filled with polarizing arguments about what we should do, and how to cope with this disaster. In case you’ve been stuck under a rock, in brief, instagram announced that it reserved the right to sell your photos to advertisers without your permission, and without compensating you. What the what?! Of course as photographers we wanted none of that, and spent the day revolting. Fortunately, I think they were listening, and are going to change their terms. OOPS. Nevermind!

While I am making light of this, we must ask ourselves what they were thinking? Was this just an innocent “oops” moment? Or, was this just another calculated move in the wrong direction for our industry? I’m not one to get into big philosophical arguments about stuff like this, but I do think it’s our job to pay attention. So I thought I’d share some links to some smart peeps who do have some good points.

Of course, my go-to source for serious industry news is the PDN website. Of course you know that Nielsen owns both WPPI and PDN, so I might be a little biased….

…And it wouldn’t be news if we didn’t have our favorite celebrities chiming in, right? Click here for mashable’s take. Thankfully, it sounds like instagram has backed down, but I ask, can we trust them now? I’d be pretty upset if they took my bow tie pics without asking!