The downside of Web 2.0

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I have a post started where I discuss my opinions on uploading and sharing some of my content through Web 2.0 sites. I haven’t had the chance to write that post up yet. For the most part, I don’t mind posting my content on the web and even licensing it openly, I’d just like to manage and control the primary storage of that content. I’d like to know that I can update, move, or remove the primary copy of the materials (yes they can live on in caches or in search engines), but I don’t have to worry about a site deciding that I can’t control the content. (Hrm, I might have just written that post.)

Why?

Here’s a good reason…

Today I received an email:

To more effectively serve our Gallery members, we have adjusted our photo-storage policy to align with storage usage.

How this affects you.

Once you begin storing photos at the Gallery, you must make the following purchases to continue such storage:

  • Members with photo storage of 2 gigabytes (GB) or less must make annual minimum purchases totaling at least $4.99.
  • Members with photo storage exceeding 2GB must make annual minimum purchases totaling at least $19.99.

Failure to meet this requirement may result in your photos being deleted from the Gallery.

Gee, that’s sorta blackmail. Pay us money or all the photos you put up under the expectation that we’d store your photos forever may disappear. (Though to be fair they probably said they could change the terms of use at any point in time. But, really, who pays attention to that.)

The good news…

You are currently compliant with our new policy, so no immediate action is required on your part.

Gee, thanks.