Instatgram, now owned by Facebook , has earned the anger of photography organizations in the US and Europe. They are joining forces because they are against Instagram’s terms of use. They argue that they are too far-reaching and unfair to users. The American Society of Media Photographers has joined forces with the National Press Photographers Association, The Digital Media Licensing Association, American Photographic Artists, This Week in Photography, Professional Photographers of America, Coordination of European Picture Agencies Stock, Press and Heritage, Graphic Artists Guild and American Society of Picture Professionals in this campaign.
“The organizations believe that few of the users who share images on the site understand the rights they are giving away,” For more information read the statement issued by the ASMP, which has also published a series of essays and analysis called “The Instagram Papers”. The ASMP and other organization are planning actions to deal with these issues.
One of the biggest issues is the clarity of the user agreement. The organizations states that Instagram’s terms of use are too broad. Instagram’s terms of used benefits itself while infringing upon their users. In the Instagram papers it states the agreement gives Instagram perpetual use of photos and video as well as the nearly unlimited right to license the images to any and all third parties. And after granting this broad license to Instagram, photographers also relinquish the right to terminate the agreement.
