A recent change to Photobucket’s terms of service has resulted in users with free accounts losing the ability to utilize the service to link images from third party websites, causing havoc for some.
Some sellers on Amazon and eBay have had their product images removed from those sites after Photobucket changed its terms of service agreement. The photo provider is now asking for $399 per annum for those who want to use it for third-party hosting. Many Photobucket users were caught out by the change and have claimed that the company is effectively holding them to ransom.
On June 26th, Photobucket announced the change to its service, writing:
With the changes, users who want to use Photobucket to host images that they’ll post on third party websites must upgrade to a Plus Account which also lets them store 500GB of images for $399. As with most people, many of those affected by the change realised that the terms had changed after their images were blocked.
Gigha Klinkenborg who runs a vintage store in the UK called Retro 2 Go, said:
With the ongoing negative reactions over social media with regard to Photobucket’s decision, it’ ll be interesting to see what repercussions the move will have for the service. It also highlights the risk of relying on a free hosting service: there’s no guarantee it’ ll stick around or continue to be free to use.
Source: BBC News | Image via Wikimedia
