Ten things you should know about Instagram’s terms of use

This content has been archived. It may no longer be accurate or relevant.

From Inforrm’s Blog:

1. The terms are confusing

Users must agree to the terms of use before they can have an Instagram account. The minimum age to sign up is 13. But the reading age for the terms are closer to university level. They are written using complicated language. For example, the licence granted is described as “a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of”.

2. You own your own photos, right?

Instagram claims it does not take ownership of its users’ content. But the terms state that the user grants Instagram a “non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use their content”. What this means is that Instagram has all the rights of the original owner of the content – aside from the fact that it is not an exclusive licence. It is important that photographers are aware of this because if they sell an image under an exclusive licence, posting the image on their Instagram would breach that licence.

3. Instagram can give away or sell your content

Instagram can sub-licence your content. This means that it could licence a user’s photograph or video to any third party, for free, without seeking permission, giving any notice or offering any payment to the user. It could also take a user’s content and let another company use that photo in exchange for a fee – which Instagram keeps.

. . . .

7. It’s a one-way street

The terms state that the same rules do not apply to Instagram’s content, which they specify is protected by Intellectual Property and cannot be copied, modified, edited, published, used or licenced. This restrictive approach is particularly problematic for other app developers, such as those who create apps to work in conjunction with Instagram to perform additional functions, such as analysing followers, unfollowers and boosting likes.

. . . .

10. Instagram should do better

Instagram’s user agreement gives it unnecessarily broad rights over its users’ content. It encourages sharing – for the benefit of advertising revenues – but leave users vulnerable to copyright infringement claims.

In my own research I have argued that Instagram should introduce an improved copyright policy that includes:

• amending its user agreement so that it is clearer and fairer towards users and does not leave them vulnerable to copyright claims, or licence breaches.
• adopting a “Notice and Takedown procedure” so users can request that infringing copies of their work are taken down by Instagram – similar to when content is blocked for copyright reasons on YouTube to enable copyright holders to enforce their rights, rather than taking court action.
• the company should introduce a copyright education tool to provide information and awareness about the law to its users and inform copyright holders when another user has screen-grabbed their image (while at the same issuing a copyright notice to the person who has taken the grab).

If Instagram does not take these steps, the company might find itself in a spot of trouble. Just this month, the Paris Court of First Instance found that Twitter’s Terms of Use (not dissimilar to Instagram’s) were void and unenforceable because they were “abusive” towards users. Twitter, which could face fines of up to €30,000, will now have to remove terms and replace them with ones which are compliant.

Link to the rest at Inforrm’s Blog