Organizations Representing Visual Artists Protest Instagram Changes

PHILADELPHIA -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), Professional Photographers of America (PPA), National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), Picture Archive Council of America (PACA), American Photographic Artists (APA) and Graphic Artists Guild (GAG), trade associations representing professional photographers, graphic artists, illustrators, visual journalists, videographers and other content creators and their licensing representatives, have received numerous objections regarding the proposed change to Instagram's terms of use. The terms provide Instagram with a perpetual right to sell users’ content without payment or notification, and requires the content owner to represent and warrant to Instagram that Instagram’s use will not violate any third party rights, including publicity and privacy rights. We are pleased that Instagram is listening to the complaints and we are willing to work with them and review any proposed terms to avoid new terms that are confusing or misleading. For example, it is unreasonable to expect any content creator to have obtained releases from third parties depicted in the content, or to indemnify Instagram for any third party rights for any commercial use of the content.

To be clear, even if a service states that the content owner retains copyright to content uploaded, the undersigned visual art associations object to terms of use which require users to grant the service provider with broad perpetual rights in the content that exceed the rights necessary for the user to enjoy the service, and in particular any grant of commercial use to either the service provider or any third party which may violate third party publicity rights. Instagram and Facebook are platforms for communities to share photographs for personal and professional use. Any grant of rights to commercialize photographs without informed consent of the creator and/or payment violates the norms of this community, including the rights of photographers, artists and their licensing representatives under our copyright system, as well as the rights of third parties.