Why I'm closing my Instagram, and why you might care

There are a few ways to monetise a service and, unfortunately, they all involve taking something from you as payment.

There's been an uproar about Instagram's change to their terms of service today, in which they outline that anything you upload grants a perpetual license to Instagram to sell the image for whatever purpose they see fit (can profit from). You will not see penny one, or be notified of any sale of your images.

This moves them from competing with Flickr and 500px to somewhere between them and Getty Images and iStockPhoto. That means that you should adjust the way you view Instagram, too.

As a Flickr or 500px user, you get your photos hosted and take part in the community. You pay (or receive a limited free account) and you can upload and link to your photos. The agreement ends there. In most cases, you grant a publication license, but that's just so that the site can show your photo to others.

With Getty and iStock, you upload your photos with a view to selling them. You then split the profits with the agency.

Instagram's terms have changed, but the features haven't. You still get the hosting and the community, but it's time to start paying. There's no pleasant way of doing this: Instagram could sell advertising space and stick companies' photos in your feed, but you're not going to like that because you don't like being advertised at. They could charge a subscription, but you're not going to like that - no-one's overcome with money at the moment. What they're doing is using the photos you upload as currency for paying for the act of uploading photos. It's sorta genius, really, and it's probably going to make them a tonne of money if they still have any users left by January.

The reason I'll be closing my Instagram account is that someone wanting to pay for the photos that I just take is my dream. For the most part, I make a load of effort with the photos I post here and on Instagram, and if they're good enough that someone wants to pay for them, I'd rather they paid me. Do I think people are interested in photos of my bike, or my dog? Probably not (although I've done OK out of a photo I sold on Getty of a puppy, so who knows?), but that doesn't mean that I want to forego the credit and financial reward in the event that someone does want to buy them.

Should you close your Instagram account? If you're a pro, I expect you already have, which is a shame for Instagram because those are the people whose photos will make them money. If you're Joe Public and you post photos of paninis and coffees, there's not really much point in moving somewhere else. If you're like me, and you take photos with the secret hope that someone comes along one day and recognises you as the artist you believe you are, you should probably move to Flickr anyway. That way, if someone wants to license your photos for sale, you'll at least be informed of it, and you'll probably make some money, too.

The most "harmful" attitude to take towards this sort of thing is the "It's a free service, stop complaining" mentality. Yes, it's a free service, but that doesn't mean you no longer have rights. You joined the service when it was free with no strings. Now there most definitely are strings attached, and it's up to you to decide if it's worth it. If it's not, that's inconvenient, and it's your prerogative to moan and make your exit.

Ultimately, they've made the question you must ask yourself quite easy. Is this photo I'm uploading worth more or less than the service its potential sale will pay for? If it's worth more, you might consider taking your photos elsewhere.

Of course, there's every chance that not one of your photos will ever be sold by Instagram. In which case, you're still getting a free service, you lucky, talentless duck

I am not a lawyer. This is my understanding of the new terms of service as I have read them. I don't speak legalese, so if I'm wrong then that just highlights a problem with chucking a big wall of text at your users and hoping it confuses them