Photobucket Demands $400 Ransom to Release Photos

[Emptymag]

EM: empty your PMs, you hoarder.

Dumped a few. Thanks for the heads up.

[normanvin]

Just downloaded my photos but it still is active.

Must be low on the list.

[KCJones]

I guess that is their business model. The following are fake numbers but the general idea.

Let's say they currently have 5000 free members. Not making much money.

They send out emails pissing off 4500 who delete their accounts or just stop using them, but 500 get stuck and have to stay and pay the $400 or figure it's not a big deal. There's $200,000 and a nice profit. Works for them in the short term, don't know about long term though.

No doubt. But I expect their revenue to take a nose-dive in about 13 months when 450 of those 500 have found other solutions and don't "renew"...

[vic2367]

deleting my FB account now !

[GunLawyer001]

I haven't read their TOS, but it sounds like the cost to them of hosting some pics for you to look at now and then, is a lot less than them using up bandwidth every time somebody loads a page where your link to one of your pics is. Like thousands of times less.

If the TOS have always said "you can't use this service for 3rd party pages", then I don't see that it's a problem for them to offer a fee-based additional service of hosting your pics for the world to view.

At the same time, it doesn't sound like any pics you had there are lost to you, if you can see them and download them and keep them on your own drive.

I dunno; I always post pics here by uploading them to the PAFOA server. It's a 5 or 6-step medieval process, but it works.

alchemist.jpg

[Emptymag]

The entire purpose of Photbucket was to post third party images.

I never exceeded what was allotted to me.

They changed the rules mid-game and are not just wanting a paid subscription to upgrade as has been the process for over a decade, but they are now requiring the top-tier package to do THE most common and basic task that has always been free - posting images on forums.

[thebearpack]

The entire purpose of Photbucket was to post third party images.

I never exceeded what was allotted to me.

They changed the rules mid-game and are not just wanting a paid subscription to upgrade as has been the process for over a decade, but they are now requiring the top-tier package to do THE most common and basic task that has always been free - posting images on forums.

Exactly correct. Based on the ridiculous number of pop-up ads you have to endure on PB, I'd say they were doing okay and this moves smacks of greed.

Either way, I deleted my account and will use Imgur. Probably a good thing in the end since I'll be less likely to post pictures. Better to maintain more privacy anyway.

[JDA58]

went and backed up all the pictures I wanted to save to my external hard drive and deleted one of my accounts... forgot I had two... took forever with all the ads...48 hours and ill be down to one account and I work on that one..when I have a lot of free time!!

[NathanB]

I kicked this over to someone with a bit of a hammer in the industry. At best this is vendor lock out with a bit of extortion. At worst it's ransomware performed by the vendor. I'm curious to see what comes of it or if he will run with it

[Emptymag]

I kicked this over to someone with a bit of a hammer in the industry. At best this is vendor lock out with a bit of extortion. At worst it's ransomware performed by the vendor. I'm curious to see what comes of it or if he will run with it

This is a big deal - way bigger than Emptymag ranting about none of his pet pics showing up any more.
I don't think a lot of people realize the extent of this action.