A couple days ago I saw a post that warned readers they ought not be posting pictures to Instagram anymore,  because they had made an announcement that they would hold rights to those pictures.  I went an read the linked article,  and saw a couple others,  and tweeted them,  and I also thought Facebook is also behind this since they had bought Instagram about 3 months ago.  But then I noticed those three articles were about the end of it on my entire Twitter feed,  which I thought was odd,  since I follow quite a few people who are watching for curtailments to user freedom on the Internet.  Earlier today,  I found an article about how those tech articles were overly sensationa; being unclearl about just what “rights” are being claimed by Instagram/Facebook.

What I understand, now,  at this point,  is that this is yet another legitimate self-protective  declaration/notification that they will use your freely shared picture as an added value to their network,  and will profit from it.  After  all,  you did SHARE it for the return YOU get for SHARING:  to reap the mutual benefits  of the network and your relationship to it.  And this is absolutely nothing  new.  All Social Networks seek a certain level of derived  benefit,  monetary or otherwise,  or all of the above.

Twit .tv ‘s Tech News Today just led with that very story