Instagram

It's your photos being used in adverts without your say-so and without any payment to you. Anyone who agrees to that is a mug of the first water.

Whinge about the payment issue all you want, it ain't gonna stop things heading in that direction.

I used to get pissy about it too and tell as many people as I could that they were being ripped off but then I realised, what's the point. I can tell what, 50 people? 100? Even if I tell a thousand people and they change their ways, Instagram had (reportedly) 300million users in October which takes pissing in the wind to new levels.

Anyway, every time Facebook etc do a T&C update there's outrage about all the photographers who are going to be stiffed out of a payment, doesn't anyone take photos because they enjoy it anymore?

I'm probably alone in this but I'm not too sure how fussed I'd be if something I posted to Instagram was used commercially and I didn't get payment. The only thing I can imagine really pissing me off would be if they took my image and made out like someone else (probably a male model with less creativity in his whole body than I have in my pinky but with a strong jawline and perfect cheekbones) took it. Maybe that's because photography isn't how I make a living though. But then, what percentage of Instagram users are pro photographers?

+lots to your next bit though.

It all gives the lie to the notion that social media sites are about sharing and keeping in touch, connecting, building communities and other such whimsical bollocks. They are rapacious companies determined to build as close to monopolies as they can with no regard for their users' privacy or preferences and with the sole aim of making a few people very rich. Any social good that has come from them has been an incidental side-effect.