Instagram won't sell user photos, vows co-founder

"To me, this reads like a full-fledged backpedal," said Olds. "The original policy made it clear that they have a full license to do pretty much whatever they want with user images... It looks like the user revolt was successful -- at least so far."

The fact that Instagram backed down in the face of such user outrage doesn't surprise Olds.

"This move by Facebook and Instagram is one of their worst. Telling users that you have the right to sell their pictures? It's caused an outpouring of anger, scorn, and loathing from a wide swath of their user base," he said. "People are imagining that pictures of their kids might end up being used as a commercial for some new toy or vacation resort."

However, Olds also noted that no one has seen the final policy revision yet and users should stay tuned. :Although the blog posting by Instagram founder Kevin Systrom seemed to back away from the most controversial parts of the policy, no one has seen the final revised language yet," he said.

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at  @sgaudin, on Google+ or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed . Her email address is sgaudin@computerworld.com.

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