Yes, I’m SHOUTING! Because it’s important.

How would you feel about a beautiful picture of your significant other being used as part of an ad campaign for Trojan condoms? For free, and without your permission? Which Facebook would have collected money for?

CNET.com is reporting today (along with Wired.com and other sources, that as of January 16th, they will now have the right to sell your photos without payment or notification. Oh, and there’s no way to opt out.

My first response was,

After thinking about it for 0.62 seconds, I was more like this:

From the CNET article:

“Instagram said today that it has the perpetual right to sell users’ photographs without payment or notification, a dramatic policy shift that quickly sparked a public outcry. The new intellectual property policy, which takes effect on January 16, comes three months after Facebook completed its acquisition of the popular photo-sharing site. Unless Instagram users delete their accounts before the January deadline, they cannot opt out.”

Fortunately, Wired gives instructions on how you can download your photos and delete your account. That massive sucking sound you hear? No, it’s not NAFTA – it’s the mad rush of users to clear out their pictures before every shot they ever took becomes free fodder for the largest stock photo database in the world.

Seriously. What ragskull in the corporate chain thought this up, what morons approved it, and who in their right mind thinks they can get away with it? I have never seen anything so egregiously arrogant in my life.

Edit: Here’s a photo of one of the potential ragskulls:

Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s CEO

Dear Kevin:

I have never used Instagram, but I wonder how long it will be before the people at Facebook decide to change their photo policies over on the main FB site? If they do, all my photos are coming down faster than a fly settles on a rotting mango.

The Old Wolf has spoken.