Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Instagreed

I was pretty much steering clear of this whole fiasco simply because I don't use Instagram- or have a smartphone, a tattoo, use Twitter or even a digital camera for that matter, but I digress. Got sucked into it via this APE book review. And it took all of two seconds to realize that it's simply a matter of Facebook's (that altruistic non-profit that's single handedly saving the world) latest ploy to make themselves ever richer by bleeding and robbing their very own customers of their personal work without their knowledge or consent. And in return, said providers of creative content would receive zero compensation- a Win/Win for Facebook and Instagram, which are now one in the same.

Meanwhile, a class action lawsuit has ensued and Instagram has backtracked- sorta, somewhat... not really:

However, Instagram kept language that gave it the ability to place ads in conjunction with user content, and saying "that we may not always identify paid services, sponsored content, or commercial communications as such." It also kept the mandatory arbitration clause (forcing users to waive their rights to participate in a class action lawsuit except under very limited circumstances).

Amazingly, not so amazingly, you have your usual assortment of fools who say there's really nothing wrong with any of that- probably many of the same who think there's nothing wrong with Ron Haviv personally selling photographs to the very weapons manufacturers who maim and kill the victims and survivors he photographs. Just part(s) of the great circle of life, I suppose.

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