The Facebook owned photo sharing site says it has the right to sell users’ photos without alerting them or payment.
The news came on December 17th last after Instagram changed their policy without nofitying users and there is no opt out clause.
The company’s new intellectual property policy comes into effect tomorrow, four months after Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg purchased Instagram.
Background
The company clarified its position on December 18th and said that it's not the company's intention to sell images.
It's blamed the language in its new terms and conditions for the confusion which sparked outrage among many of its users.
Many users do not want to take the risk and have deleted the app to avoid the possible infringement.
The only way to avoid your photos being used without your permission is to delete your Instagram account. If users opt to keep their account their photos could potentially be sold.
The new policy grants Facebook the right to license all public Instagram images to third party companies including advertisers.
This move could potentially make the photo sharing site the biggest stock photo agency in the world.
Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation said last month: "It's asking people to agree to unspecified future commercial use of their photos. That makes it challenging for someone to give informed consent to that deal."
A further issue that could arise if users have choose not to delete their Instagram account means users could have waived their right to parent company Facebook using or selling any images as well.
Google and Yahoo’s image policy are much stricter. Google and its subsidiary companies like Google+ or Picasa states, "The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our services."
Yahoo's policy for Flickr is similar stating images are "solely for the purpose for which such content was submitted or made available."
The new Instagram policy also says the company is not responsible for any libellous content provided by users. "Instagram will not be liable for any use or disclosure of any content you provide."
