Photo bucket: Class action suit?

[niteowl7710]

Well the dirty little secret is nothing ever truly SAFE.  Even if you were to go back to writing everything down on paper and using 35MM film, all of that is only one bad rain storm, an electrical short circuit or some other catastrophe away from floating away, being blown to Kansas, or being incinerated.  Have back ups to your back ups and all of that, but there's no 100% guaranteed way of making it survive any longer than you do.

[Force]

I wouldn't bother, PB just killed themselves off with this deal and it's just a matter of time before they are gone.

I used a free account and I haven't had any issues until now, but I will not pay 400 bucks to be able to link my pictures to forums, Fotki are a lot cheaper for the same service.

[Bill J]

The difference is free vs paid. It's free, you aren't entitled to anything. When you pay for cloud services, you should read your contract or the terms and conditions. I use the cloud for everything, but I have everything stored locally as well. I have everything in the cloud for access, but I don't trust it 100%. Servers can be compromised. There is nothing wrong with the cloud, but if anyone thinks they are going to sue a company for revoking a free privilege, then they are wasting their time. 
it was free, you are not entitled to anything. If you lost files because of this, that is 100% on you and you deserve nothing 

My statement's have  nothing to do with free vs. paid, it is simply a warning that any data stored elsewhere, under someone else's control is subject to loss or being ransomed for higher fees. It really doesn't matter about free privilege or lawsuits. My statements are purely a warning to advise people to not put their eggs in someone else's basket. You can use the cloud all your desire but keep a copy of everything locally. Also, don't put anything I on the cloud that you want kept private, someone can see your files, like it or not.

 

[ChrisBcritter]

I just deleted everything of mine from Photobucket - over 1400 photos. I'll replace what's gone from my other forums bit by bit, but no hurry.

[Ace-Garageguy]

The difference is free vs paid. It's free, you aren't entitled to anything. When you pay for cloud services, you should read your contract or the terms and conditions. I use the cloud for everything, but I have everything stored locally as well. I have everything in the cloud for access, but I don't trust it 100%. Servers can be compromised. There is nothing wrong with the cloud, but if anyone thinks they are going to sue a company for revoking a free privilege, then they are wasting their time. 
it was free, you are not entitled to anything. If you lost files because of this, that is 100% on you and you deserve nothing 

You are confusing contract law and the blatantly unethical, unreasonable and reckless actions that PhotoBucket took when they destroyed the content of hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of blog and forum users WITH NO OR VERY LITTLE WARNING.

Suing PhotoBucket for causing emotional distress to so many people on such a wide scale has to do with how PhotoBucket's conduct affected people, not whether the service was fee-paid or not.

Recovering damages for "emotional distress" usually requires that some physical harm can be demonstrated as well, but a case could possibly be made that the sudden destruction of vast amounts of peoples' web content can constitute "physical harm".

Laws governing the definitions of ethical conduct and reckless behavior vary from state to state, so you would be well advised to consult a competent attorney before you make any judgments as to the viability of a suit.

If the fine-print in the user agreement that nobody ever reads specifically states that P-bucket can change the terms of service at any time with no notice, restrict access to 3rd party sharing, and in so doing destroy the value of any web content containing links to their storage and sharing service, the free users may all be SOL. Otherwise, maybe not.

Far as the "cloud" goes, I'll never use it for anything critical. If I'm ever engaged in an activity that's so Earth-shatteringly important as to require me to have access to all my data 24/7 from anywhere on the planet, I'll set up remote access my own server...not somebody else's of dubious security and integrity.

 

Edited July 18, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy

[bugman9317]

You are confusing contract law and the blatantly unethical and reckless actions that PhotoBucket took when they destroyed the content of hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of blog and forum users WITH NO OR VERY LITTLE WARNING.

Suing PhotoBucket for causing emotional distress to so many people on such a wide scale has to do with how PhotoBucket's conduct affected people, not whether the service was fee-paid or not.

Recovering damages for "emotional distress" usually requires that some physical harm can be demonstrated as well, but a case could possibly be made that the sudden destruction of vast amounts of peoples' web content can constitute "physical harm".

Laws governing the definitions of ethical conduct and reckless behavior vary from state to state, so you would be well advised to consult a competent attorney before you make any judgments as to the viability of a suit.

 

I think the problem with that theory is the assumption that the property was yours. I am pretty sure when u our signed their Terms Of Agreement you signed away your rights to the content. All they did was destroyed their own property.

 

[mr68gts]

Cant see why there would be a lawsuit. Free is free and theres is probably something in the original TOS stating they can change it at any time. 

I cant see any reason for an emotional distress suit either. A, it would be difficult to prove Im sure and B, they didnt cut you off of access to YOUR pics. They just changed how theybwent about things. You can still access them, just can't 3rd party them as you used to. Now granted that wouldn't stop some lawyer from trying just because they make all the money while you are out money or get nothing in return for your FREE account.

Best bet, find a new place or way and move on but thats MY opinion.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I think the problem with that theory is the assumption that the property was yours. I am pretty sure when u our signed their Terms Of Agreement you signed away your rights to the content. All they did was destroyed their own property.

We've touched on this before, and agreeing to the "terms of service" gave P-bucket an unlimited free license to use the content however they wished, but it did NOT negate the user's ownership of the content, nor did it give them power to destroy the user's ability to access said content via links, etc. (assuming I understand the wording of the agreement correctly).

[Ace-Garageguy]

Cant see why there would be a lawsuit. Free is free and theres is probably something in the original TOS stating they can change it at any time. 

I cant see any reason for an emotional distress suit either. A, it would be difficult to prove Im sure and B, they didnt cut you off of access to YOUR pics. They just changed how theybwent about things. You can still access them, just can't 3rd party them as you used to. Now granted that wouldn't stop some lawyer from trying just because they make all the money while you are out money or get nothing in return for your FREE account.

Best bet, find a new place or way and move on but thats MY opinion.

So far, it doesn't have any effect on me anyway, 'cause I always paid as I went. What a concept.

Funny how nobody minded screwing P-bucket out of revenue, but everybody screams when the free lunch is taken away.

But it's still THE WAY THEY WENT ABOUT IT that's reprehensible.

[mr68gts]

We've touched on this before, and agreeing to the "terms of service" gave P-bucket an unlimited free license to use the content however they wished, but it did NOT negate the user's ownership of the content, nor did it give them power to destroy the user's ability to access said content via links, etc. (assuming I understand the wording of the agreement correctly).

your probably right. And there is still access to them. They didnt blatantly steal them and cut off access to them. And you do have a choice to download them and go somewhere else without paying to get them back. 

I want to say that you solely own the photos however they can use them as they see fit to suit their needs.

It may come down to having to watermark your photos as yours though. Im not sure and copyright laws are a sticky subject with many layers to the laws than many of us mear laymen couldn't possibly grasp without a degree.

[mr68gts]

So far, it doesn't have any effect on me anyway, 'cause I always paid as I went. What a concept.

Funny how nobody minded screwing P-bucket out of revenue, but everybody screams when the free lunch is taken away.

But it's still THE WAY THEY WENT ABOUT IT that's reprehensible.

oh im not stating what they did wasn't crooked as all hell but as far as lawsuits go I don't think anyone has a leg to stand on. I personally didn't pay for their services as I wasn't in agreement as to how they went about things anyway. Did it affect me? Sure but only minutely and quite frankly there are better things to do than bicker about something as petty as how someone pulled the rug out from under them over a free service. (Not that anyone is mind you)  

This will be my last posting as far as Pbucket goes however. I choose to move on from what has only become a sore subject for many.

Go build something people. I am!

[crazyjim]

I'm still updating PB with my build pics just in case PB decides to smarten up and come back with the free service again.  I also opened a Flickr account to be able to post pics on this forum.  All my pics are stored on mt hard drive.

[Lunajammer]

I think the problem with that theory is the assumption that the property was yours. I am pretty sure when u our signed their Terms Of Agreement you signed away your rights to the content. All they did was destroyed their own property.

 

This is mostly correct. My GF raises retrievers and takes very nice puppy photos. She used a photo hosting site for her forums. Then one of her photos started showing up as a stock photo on retail merchandising. She asked the site to cease and desist. They all but told here to take a hike.

You retain the rights to your photos, but using their site permits them to use your photos any way they want.

Edited July 18, 2017 by Lunajammer

[Mike C]

I think we're all kicking the Bucket and moving on to other free photo hosting sites. In time I will eventually delete mt PB account. What PB also did was make it so no one can look at PB. You can view the thumbnails but when you click on a photo it gives you that same 3rd party message. I used it to show my picture to a friend from work. When he clicked on a photo that's what happened.

[Spex84]

What's driving me nuts is that even those Pbucket photos that are still visible, seem to be impossible to right-click save. For a long time now, I've had this problem where Pbucket images saved to my harddrive were showing up blank, and I could only get them to work if I navigated to their original location on Pbucket. Ok, fine, they want site traffic. But NOW the photos seem to be displayed in some kind of dynamic carousel gallery, can't be saved, and can't be drag-n-dropped to save them either.  So if a Google search turns up Pbucket images, or I see something in a thread that I want to save, I'm out of luck. I don't understand this; it's bizarre and self-destructive on Pbucket's part. What am I supposed to do, bookmark it and return to Pbucket every time I want to see a particular image??? That's insane!

I've been reduced to taking screenshots of the images instead, which I quickly crop in Photoshop and save.

Screw you, Photobucket!

[Atmobil]

I found this:
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/07/16/photobucket-fee-hike/

Maybe the company will collapse? What will then happen?

[peteski]

While what Photobucket did is really underhanded I doubt  they will go out of business. There are probably still millions of users (both free and with paid subscriptions) that use Photobucket for their Photo storage and sharing. After all, they only disabled 3rd party hosting. You can still view user's albums on the site and share links to the photos in emails, etc.

I have a free account and was only using them for 3rd party hosting, so I'm no longer using them. I left my account active in case they decide that what they did was stupid, but I'm not holding my breath. The forum sites I frequent now allow for local photo storage so I'm slowly updating my old posts with locally stored photos.

[StevenGuthmiller]

I don't begrudge PB from making a buck, hell, this is America and this is a capitalist system, but to go from zero to $400.00 is completely ridiculous, & with virtually no notice to boot.

It shows me just how little they care about the people that they claim to serve.

Add to that the fact that the site is virtually unusable because of all of the adds & you have to question why anyone would remain on board.

A sub-par product at ten times the price.......sounds like a real bargain, eh?

What would have been wrong with starting with a $5.00 or $10.00 a month plan with maybe the possibility of upgrading to a more expensive "add free" plan.

Obviously these guys have never heard of the fact that "sales" drive profits.

The more paying customers you get, the more revenue you generate.

Now their going to have to rely on a few "captive" customers who don't feel that they have options to try to keep their sorry ass venture afloat.

 

Steve