Editing 1150: Instagram

{{comic
| number    = 1150
| date      = December 21, 2012
| title     = Instagram
| image     = instagram.png
| titletext = I'm gonna call the cops and get Chad arrested for theft, then move all my stuff to the house across the street. Hopefully the owners there are more responsible.
}}

==Explanation==
As indicated by the title, this comic is an allegory for a recent controversy over {{w|Instagram}}, a photo-sharing social network now owned by {{w|Facebook}}. In December 2012, Instagram changed their [http://instagram.com/about/legal/terms/ terms of use], allowing the network to sell user-uploaded images, without profit to the content generators. This infuriated many users, who closed their accounts or stopped uploading images.

In the comic [[Cueball]] tells his Cueball-like friend about his problem with Chad, who just sent him a note telling him that he no longer wants to store all this stuff that Cueball has left in his garage. Cueball left it there because Chad has nice shelves and lets him in to see his stuff whenever he wishes, so that was really convenient.

Chad's note tells Cueball that he has a month to move his shit — after that he will try to get rid of it by selling it on {{w|Craigslist}}. 

Cueball is outraged, as this is not way to run a ''{{w|Self storage|storage business}}.'' But when his friend asks him if he paid anything for this "storage business", it turns out that he did not. The friend then concludes that it is '''not''' a storage business. 

This is exactly the problem with Instagram (or its users). A user does not pay anything, but to create an account you have to sign a terms of service/end user license agreement. A user has thus effectively signed their consent to whatever Instagram has written. Instagram can then change these terms if they give a forewarning (as Chad has done here). However, most users don't read the terms before clicking the "I agree" option, so it can come as a shock when Instagram uses the data in a way the user hadn't anticipated. 

Instead of getting angry Cueball should thus just go and remove his stuff, but instead he is just going to ''almost'' (but not quite) stop giving Chad any more stuff. 

This is also making fun of those Instagram users that complain about the new way of using their data, but at the same time keep uploading more pictures. The users have often developed a kind of addiction, so they cannot just stop sharing their life (in pictures).

In the title text Cueball continues with an idea of calling the cops. He thinks that Chad is a thief. He thus ignores that he left the stuff at Chad's house of his own accord. And after Chad has been arrested (which will of course never happen) he wishes to move all his stuff to another house, just to continue to get free storage. 

There are two major flaws in this logic - and it is the same with the logic of the disgruntled Instagram users. You cannot accuse Instagram of stealing because it was you who gave them the images in the first place, and it is irresponsible to assume that this will not happen if you give your photos to another free social networking service (e.g. {{w|Facebook}}).

These kind of issues (with Facebook as the evildoer) are also the subject of [[743: Infrastructures]] and [[1390: Research Ethics]].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, raising a hand, is talking to his Cueball-like friend who is sitting by his computer.]
:Cueball: I've been putting all my stuff in Chad's garage.
:Cueball: He has nice shelves.
:Cueball: And he lets me in to see it whenever I want.

:[In the next panel, without a frame, there is a close up of a note. Above the note is a small black frame with Cueballs comment:]
:Cueball (off-panel): But I got this note from him:
:[The note:]
:Dude
:In like a month im gonna Craigslist all that shit you left in my garage
:Just FYI
::-Chad

:[Zoom in on Cueball who lifts both hands palms up.]
:Cueball: It's an ''outrage!'' This is no way to run a storage business!
:Friend (off-panel): Are you paying him to look after your stuff?

:[Final frame almost like the first frame, but Cueball has taken his hands down.]
:Cueball: No.
:Friend: Then what he runs isn't a storage business.
:Cueball: Well, I'm ''this'' close to not giving him any more stuff.
:Friend: That'll teach him.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Social networking]]