Instagram can make money off your pictures, but you can't have any!

Image: Jon Keller and me, the new I Team!

Jon Keller interviewed me about the uproar over Instagram's plans to update their terms of use. We talked about what's changing, alternative photo sharing apps like Flikr, and what people on Social Media are saying. We also talked about what makes Instagram special.

Here's the interview that aired, 12/18, at 5:40 PM to CBS Boston WBZ TV News.







Here's a promo you might have seen on TV:



Jon Keller, WBZ TV News:

This popular web photo sharing site is saying, we can make money off your pictures, but you can't have any! How the public is fighting back!

Instagram New Updated Terms Of Use:

These Terms of Use are effective on January 16, 2013.
Excerpt:

Rights
1. Instagram does not claim ownership of any Content that you post on or through the Service. Instead, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content that you post on or through the Service, except that you can control who can view certain of your Content and activities on the Service as described in the Service's Privacy Policy, available here: http://instagram.com/legal/privacy/.

2. Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you. If you are under the age of eighteen (18), or under any other applicable age of majority, you represent that at least one of your parents or legal guardians has also agreed to this provision (and the use of your name, likeness, username, and/or photos (along with any associated metadata)) on your behalf.

3. You acknowledge that we may not always identify paid services, sponsored content, or commercial communications as such.

Instagram Web Display Now:



Imagined Instagram Web Display With Ads:



Twitter comments:

Instagram backlash is Flickr's gain vrge.co/VNoh6X (/@verge cc @stevegarfield)

— Brett Petersel (@Brett) December 18, 2012

@stevegarfield Yeah, the new ToS have brought me back to Flickr where I'll be fine without the retro filters.

— Sonia (@liteleek) December 18, 2012

@stevegarfield Instagram will die if they keep making these kinds of mistakes.

— Doug Luberts (@dougluberts) December 18, 2012

@stevegarfield just more corporations taking away the rights of creatives

— Rick Macomber (@boston_camera) December 18, 2012

@stevegarfield Great for brands - bad for users who care about the use of their images (which may be a smaller pond than we think).

— Jane Quigley (@jquig99) December 18, 2012

@stevegarfield As a parent they have made it a network my kids are now no longer on which sucks.

— C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman) December 18, 2012

Image: Jon Keller and me!

Elsewhere:

The Verge: Instagram backlash is Flickr's gain

Update 12/18 5:02 PM:

Thank you, and we’re listening:

The language we proposed also raised question about whether your photos can be part of an advertisement. We do not have plans for anything like this and because of that we’re going to remove the language that raised the question. Our main goal is to avoid things likes advertising banners you see in other apps that would hurt the Instagram user experience. Instead, we want to create meaningful ways to help you discover new and interesting accounts and content while building a self-sustaining business at the same time.

I'll wait to see their changes, then decide if they listened.

Update 12/19:

Great read. Instagram didn’t get the tone wrong:

"...this is completely wrong. The Ts and Cs were absolutely clear, even if their content was controversial.

By contrast, the ‘clarification’ is slippery, mealy-mouthed and contradictory."

Absolutely the best writing on what is happening.

Hawaii Five-0 Promo Shoot for WBZ and CBS

These are some photos I took from a Boston Duck Tours Duck Boat while shooting a Hawaii Five-0 promo spot for WBZ TV and CBS.

We had a Duck Boat full of people singing the Hawaii Five-0 theme, with a trailing Duck Boat behind us to capture all the footage. It was a beautiful day for a free duck boat ride o nthe Charles River.

It was especially fun for me to be able to take some beautiful photos of Boston.

I grabbed some videos too:


Chase Boat


Boston Skyline from the Charles River


Ducks Meet Duck Boat - Two Way Traffic

Wikipedia: Hawaii Five-O

CBS explains why it's 'Hawaii Five-0" and not 'Hawaii-Five-O'

Declare Your Curiosity: Lisa Hughes and Steve Garfield

I'm a big fan of WBZ TV's outreach program called Declare Your Curiosity. That's why they had me come in and record this promo with Lisa Hughes. It was a lot of fun.

You send in your questions to http://wbztv.com/curious, and those that are selected can get on TV. Even more than that, the WBZ TV news teams researches your questions and finds out the answer. It's like having your own personal investigative news team. In one case the reporter asked the interview subject the exact questions that a viewer sent in.

I like seeing tv stations reach out to people formerly known as hte audience.

Journalism by Wandering Around

Jackson West writes for NewTeeVee, Online Political Video a Winner in 2008:

Steve Garfield, who scooped CNN on Duncan Hunter’s announcement that he’s still in the race with a live video feed to Qik from his Nokia-sponsored phone over an AT&T-sponsored connection, didn’t bother to get any credentials at all. “Journalism by wandering around,” he called it in a phone chat.

His live video, in turn, got edited into a piece The UpTake and pushed as a Veracifier Ground Hound segment, with the two outlets partnering to provide more coverage.

Thanks Jackson, nice report.

On election night I was watching WBZTV.com in Boston. They were broadcasting on TV38 throughout the night, with a live text chat for viewers to talk with the anchors. First time I've ever seen this in Boston. It was groundbreaking for Boston TV to have on air anchors text chatting with viewers. BZ even had a segment where the anchors read some of hte chat comments on the air.

It took a while for them to stop calling the chat room blogging, but they soon stopped, because each time they said they were blogging, the chat room corrected them.

A few improvements could be made to the BZ chat room. It could only hold about 35 people, so new rooms were created as each chat room filed up. The explanation given was that the text would scroll too fast with too many people in the chat. They actually need a longer chat window, so you can more easily scroll back to see the history.

Automatic warnings to refrain from personal comments against the anchors or candidates disturbed chat room participants since no one was attacking any one.

It was a fun and intelligent crowd.

Finally, the chat room shut down in the middle of Clinton's speech, leaving me upset that it was gone and desiring chat rooms on WBZ for all live broadcasts.

I hope WBZ found it successful. I know I did. I stayed with WBZ all night on TV and online. That's probably what they wanted.