500px’s latest change of terms sparks outrage among photographers
Dec 20, 2019
Dunja Đuđić
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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It looks like 500px never lacks new reasons to make photographers angry. Users have recently received a notice that the website is changing its Terms of Service. The updated agreement has sparked some outrage among photographers, making them delete their accounts.
Photographer Beno Saradzic (previously) shared a screenshot of 500px updated Terms of Service on his Facebook profile, particularly the part about the rights. “I just read 500px’s updated Terms. It seems they have made a full transition to the Dark Side. 500px, seriously, WTAF?? #sad” Beno wrote in the caption. And judging from the comments, many people got furious and went on to delete their 500px accounts.
There sure are plenty of reasons to be mad at 500px and even delete your account from the site. They made stupid mistakes like banning a Photoshop master they’d previously promoted on the site’s own blog. Or banning a light painting photographer because of “non-photographic content.” There have been more serious hiccups and changes that affected all of us. Some of them are the redesigned home feed, killing the Creative Commons licensing, quietly reducing free account uploads, and of course – a data breach.
All of the above reasons made me delete my account a long time ago. But if I still had the account, would the changed Terms of Service be another reason to delete it? Well, exactly, the answer is no. As PetaPixel notices, the new terms are not actually all that new. They have only been reworded a bit, but these are the same terms you have been agreeing on for years if you’re a 500px user.
Here are a few screenshots of Terms of Service before the update:
And these are 500px’s Terms of Service as they are now:
The only thing that has actually changed is that 500px has consolidated two agreements into a single new Terms of Service. Previously, the Terms of Service and the Contributor Agreement were two separate documents. And by the new update, they have been merged into one. As for other terms regarding your rights, it turns out that they have been here all along.
As I mentioned, I deleted my 500px account a long time ago for multiple reasons. If you were okay with the old terms, you will be okay with the new ones too, considering that they’re basically the same. But if you’d like to delete your account after all, here’s how to do it permanently.
[via PetaPixel]
Dunja Đuđić
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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21 responses to “500px’s latest change of terms sparks outrage among photographers”
All 5 people still on the platform are upset? Still? Shocker.
Isn’t it owned by CCP.
As I understand it, it’s similar to the terms of Facebook and Vero.
I left as soon as they were sold… all downhill from there.
Had to leave one year ago.
this says all http://leodesignagency.com/2019/04/500px-owners-claim-copyright-of-black-hole-photo-remove-website-following-backlash/
I was on there at one time, but I long ago forgot my login. I suppose I have a handful of images still sitting there, just don’t know how to access it.
Deleted mine years ago
I’ve my light painting images at 500px, I guess It’s time to backup everything and delete the account. Plus I’m thinking of leaving format website too.
Nope cancelled mine
Had an account but never found it particularly user friendly. Judging by the email I got today Flickr are in trouble, not enough Pro subscribers apparently. I wonder where the future of photo sharing lies, surely not in Instagram ?
Flickr needs more Pros or they will not exist. Compared to everything else they have good terms and a fair price, but that may not be enough to save them. Free seems to be the only thing people care about and free comes with lots of hidden costs (like loss of ownership of your photos).
I shoot film and 500px has always destroyed the look of film grain with its compression/enhancement. Left 500px years ago when it became clear they didn’t give a damn about film photography.
never been on it
China…
Is there a way to backup pictures in one go in 500px please advice
Just found out theyve already removed CC licensing too… ò_ó
Ive published everything using CC on internet since CC got defined.
Goodbye 500px
Had it. Before it was sold. I don’t care for it anymore.
Visual China Group acquired 500px a little over a year ago.
Any server based in China is subject to full dump to local gov without any need for warrant since last October.
Flickr – no compression, reasonable price for full backup of photos.
The main issue that I see is they removed this part of the agreement, and that make all the difference in the world. Glad I don’t use 500px LOL
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/83f76fc37bc530f3506a363dce38bdb92c56330c8236c0d3f9d73937ae98bd26.png