In response to the furor over Instagram's proposed use of users' images in advertisements without their knowledge, photo sharing site Flickr is capitalizing on the anger, offering three free months of its Pro service.
The Pro service comes with unlimited photo uploads (up to 50 MB each), unlimited photo viewing, unlimited HD video playing and the ability to download the original high-resolution photos to a hard drive.
The free service normally only allows 300 MB of uploads each month, viewing of the last 200 images, low-resolution downloads and a limit of two video uploads per month.
The free upgrade is available to both current Flickr users and new users who sign up now. No credit card information is required; the account simply gets upgraded to the Pro service, and after three months reverts back to the free version. The Pro service usually costs $25 per year, so it's not a huge discount, but it's no-risk and hassle-free.
Flickr is owned by Yahoo, which has been trying desperately to rebrand itself after its webmail service was bested by Gmail and it's news service has become a poor excuse for entertainment coverage.
Flickr, however, is still a valuable and useful commodity. It has over 85 million users and an acclaimed new iPhone and iOS app.
Instagram users fed up with Facebook-style money grabs can easily migrate to Flickr with Freethephotos, a web application that copies all photos from an Instagram account directly to a Flickr account. It's free, too, and saves no data.
After backlash from Instagram users and privacy advocates, Instagram amended its proposed terms of use, but the site has been circumspect about its commitment to users' privacy.
Instagram has also made it clear that they intend to find some way to monetize the vast wealth of digital information they store.
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