Instagram got the right to sell photos of users.

The photo service for Instagram mobile devices unilaterally changed the terms of the user agreement. New conditions directly allow Instagram to sell photos to third parties, including for commercial use. Reportedly, the conditions change is made “for easier integration with the social network Facebook, photo sharing, more effective fight against spam, faster identification and elimination of problems”.

New conditions will come into force on January 16, 2013. Lawyers believe that Facebook will retain the right to sell photos uploaded to the server after January 16, 2013, even if the user deletes his Instagram account.

In the old ToS there was such a phrase:

“When you publish any content on or through the Instagram service, you hereby grant Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid, royalty-free limited license to use, modify, delete, add, publicly perform, publicly display, play and translate this content, including, without limitation, distribution of part or all of the site in any media formats through any media channels, with the exception of closed content (“private”), which will not be distributed outside of Instagram. ”
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These are quite standard conditions for sites with user content, the same as on Twitter. Under the new conditions, the phrase “limited license” was replaced with “transferred license with sublicensing right”. There is also a new phrase “a company or other organization can pay us for displaying your ... photos ... in connection with paid or sponsored content or action, without any compensation for you”.

You can see your username, likeness, photos, and / or your choice. The majority of people who are under the law, have been agreed to this provision. , and / or photos (along with any associated metadata)) on your behalf.

In other words, the old conditions did not allow the sale of photographs to third parties, and the new conditions allowed. Thus, Instagram instantly turns into the world's largest stock photo bank. It will differ from ordinary photobanks like iStockPhoto only in that there are no author's fees for photo authors.

See also the translation “ Instagram changes the content of the user agreement. What does this mean for you? "

UPD. Instagram promised to remove the controversial ToS fragment and said that they were misunderstood due to ambiguous wording.