Instagram wants to sell your photos – for free

Yesterday, Instagram announced a change in its terms of service (TOS). It says that from now on, it has the right to sell your photos to third parties for purposes of advertising. That’s right, your Instagram photo can now be used to advertise everything from breakfast cereal to cures for VD – without your permission and without any compensation to you. Seriously Instagram? And you thought people would be okay with this?

I wrote earlier this year about how many photo-sharing services claim certain rights with regard to the photos you post on those services. Those rights are mostly to do with promoting the service itself and the rights necessary to hold and display your photos. That language reads “a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, worldwide, limited license to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and translate such Content” (from the previous Instagram terms of service.) I think for anyone not interested on a professional level about the use of their photos, that requirement was on the borderline of acceptable.

Instagram has gone way further than that, though. In agreeing to their new TOS, you are permitting this:

To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.

That’s crazy, IMHO. I can’t imagine they could skirt the requirement to have a model release for recognizable people, so the photos from your daughter’s ballet recital or your son’s birthday party are probably (probably!) safe, but the sheer audacity of the rights grab ensures I won’t be posting any more photos to Instagram.

Bloggers in paradise

This makes me very sad, because I have just lately warmed up to Instagram and its social community. Kind of reminds me of the stand I took against Pinterest earlier this year – it pains me to have to stop using a service I’ve come to love, but I’ve managed to survive the year without Pinterest and I’ll find somewhere else to share my Instagram iPhone photos.

If you love the look of Instagram but don’t care about the social sharing, you can continue to use Instagram with your iPhone in “airplane” mode – your iPhone can’t post to Instagram’s servers but does save a copy of the photo to your iPhone’s photo albums. I’ve got my settings programmed to save both the original full-sized photo without the filter and the cropped version with the Instagram filter. There are other options, too — Twitter now apparently has filters on its photo-sharing interface, and Flickr just rolled out a mobile app that has built-in filters as well. (And speaking of that – yay Flickr! The old iPhone app was beyond horrible, but I am really digging the new one!)

I read one article that tried to argue that Instagram photos are meant to be disposible anyway, and people were being “whiny babies” when they complained about the potential use of their photos for advertising – that the right to sell your photos is a fair “price of admission” for the use of the service. They argue that the potential that one of your photos might sell is “infinitesimal” — but I felt that way about Getty Images, too. They have more than 80 million photos for sale, but more than 100 of mine have been sold.

You might wonder how I can be upset about the Instagram rights grab and still license some of my photos through Getty. The difference is that (a) I got compensated for every single one of them and (b) I always have the choice about whether to license an image or not. Two big distinctions, IMHO.

What do you think of all this? Are you bothered by the changes to Instagram? Would you care if your photo of your feet in your favourite fuzzy slippers made it to a billboard somewhere? Or will you shut down your Instagram account?

Oh Internet, how you continue to vex me, you fickle mistress…

Edited to add: so I was interviewed by CBC Radio about this at 3:30 and they were going to air the clip on the 4:30 news, but a few minutes later the reporter called me back and said there was some question about what Instagram was actually saying. A couple of hours later, this retraction/clarification was posted by Instagram. In part:

To provide context, we envision a future where both users and brands alike may promote their photos & accounts to increase engagement and to build a more meaningful following. Let’s say a business wanted to promote their account to gain more followers and Instagram was able to feature them in some way. In order to help make a more relevant and useful promotion, it would be helpful to see which of the people you follow also follow this business. In this way, some of the data you produce — like the actions you take (eg, following the account) and your profile photo — might show up if you are following this business.

The language we proposed also raised question about whether your photos can be part of an advertisement. We do not have plans for anything like this and because of that we’re going to remove the language that raised the question. Our main goal is to avoid things like advertising banners you see in other apps that would hurt the Instagram user experience. Instead, we want to create meaningful ways to help you discover new and interesting accounts and content while building a self-sustaining business at the same time.

Ownership Rights Instagram users own their content and Instagram does not claim any ownership rights over your photos. Nothing about this has changed. We respect that there are creative artists and hobbyists alike that pour their heart into creating beautiful photos, and we respect that your photos are your photos. Period.

Hmm. I am not convinced enough either way to delete my account entirely, but will closely watch how this shakes down.

The Joy of Learning and Ottawa’s Youville Centre

As you know, we receive toys for review a couple of times a year from Fisher-Price, and other months they provide information or inspiration for us to use in our blog posts. This month, they’ve done something completely different and have offered to donate our December toy shipment to a charity of our choice.

How much do I love this? (Answer: a LOT!) As soon as the offer came in, I knew which charity I wanted to choose. I needed to settle a score that has been gnawing at me all year long.

Way back in January, in advance of Kindness Week, I was invited to tour the Youville Centre. I was genuinely blown away by the amazing work they do, by the programs and the staff and the volunteers. I was also deeply touched by the young women who attend the Youville Centre and their efforts to make a better life for themselves and their children. But, despite my best intentions, life got in the way and I never did write the blog post I wanted to. So here’s my chance to redeem myself and FINALLY tell you about this amazing organization.

The Youville Centre has been providing education, childcare, parenting instruction and support services to teenage mothers in Ottawa for 25 years. It provides accredited on-site high school education programs for the mothers and licensed day care for their children as well as a host of other support programs. When I thought about Fisher-Price’s emphasis this year on the Joy of Learning theme, it really did seem like the perfect fit!

Here’s a little bit about the work of the Youville Centre in their own words:

While the mothers are in school, their infants and toddlers are enrolled in the on-site day care. The children benefit from a quality early childhood learning program that addresses the social, emotional, cognitive, language and physical needs of each child. Nutritious meals and snacks are served daily.

Staff provide crisis intervention and counselling, advocacy, and referrals for current students, clients on Youville’s waiting list, and former students. A young father’s program is also delivered at Youville. It consists of a weekly support group, parenting support, individual counselling and a father/child drop in.

Through the Youville Centre, many young parents have obtained high school graduation diplomas. Several have gone on to college or university. Others have entered the world of work to enjoy rewarding and profitable employment.

The Youville Centre is opening doors in the lives of the young women it serves. Not only do they provide educational programs and child care, but they provide life skills and practical support like co-op programs, and even resources for finding a job.

I was 32 years old when Tristan was born. I kept thinking about that as I toured the Youville Centre, trying to wrap my head around the idea of being a pregnant teen or mothering a newborn and trying to go to school at the same time. I also thought about the first few months I lived away from home when I was 18, in the weeks after I graduated high school and moved across the province. These were two of the hardest periods in my life, marked by depression and feelings of isolation, and the idea of them happening consecutively? I simply can’t imagine what that must be like. I can only thank the grace of God that I didn’t have to worry about abuse or poverty, or how to do my homework while juggling a newborn, or where to go for help if I needed it.

As I toured the Youville Centre, I was deeply touched by the work of the staff and volunteers. They are sympathetic but firm, compassionate and kind. The centre is a bright, open building that feels very much like an ordinary high school, until you see the wee babies being cuddled by staff and volunteers in the nursery while the mothers attend classes. I was happy to be able to donate a Fisher-Price Snugabunny Bouncer and another small toy to the nursery. I think the bouncy chair was the single most useful bit of baby gear we had when the boys were wee, and this one looks so cosy I wish I could curl up inside it!

The Youville Centre would love to have your support as well. There are many ways that you can help! Got stuff? They always need diapers (especially in sizes 4, 5 and 6), clothes for teens (both work and casual style), running shoes for teen girls, clothes for babies and kids up to size 6, and board books. Here’s a full list of what they can and cannot accept.

Got time? Volunteers are an integral part of running a non-profit organization like the Youville Centre. If you can help, there’s information and an application for volunteers on their website.

And of course, the Youville Centre would be grateful for your financial support as well. They are a federally registered charity, and so your donation is fully tax deductible. They’d be happy to accept your donation on line or even on the phone – there’s more information on their website about financial donations.

Thank you to the Youville Centre for the tour way back in January, and for the great work you do in our community. And of course, thank you Fisher-Price for the donation and the opportunity to let me redeem myself and shine the spotlight on the wonderful Youville Centre.

And finally, thank YOU to all my generous and kind readers. I hope the holidays fill all of your lives with blessings!

Friday favourites

It was the Friday before Christmas and all through the house, DaniGirl’s boys were even more adorable than usual. (I pop these stories up on Facebook every now and then, but I fear they’ll be lost forever if I don’t replicate them here in my digital baby book. Sorry to those of you who’ve read some of these already! I’ve decided I will not let Facebook and Twitter status updates steal any more content gold from the blog, even if I do occasionally repeat myself!)

Simon came bounding out of school yesterday and met me at the fence, his face full of excitement. “Mom! I need an agent!”

Not only did I laugh out loud, but so did the three or four other parents within earshot. “Um, pardon?” was the best reply I could come up with.

“An agent!” he insisted. “I know where I can get one! Downtown!” A bit more careful prodding on my part discerned that he was in fact talking about a talent agent. He had a substitute teacher yesterday whose teen daughter is an actor and has been in several productions, including a TV show Simon watches. She must have been regaling them with her daughter’s experiences, because Simon talked of nothing else for the rest of the evening. He truly wants an agent for Christmas, the boy whose acting repetoire so far is limited to 2nd King in the 2010 church nativity play.

Then again, if you know Simon, you’re probably thinking exactly what I’m thinking. “Yeah, I could see that.” He’s my favourite.

Speaking of church, Tristan came home a couple of weeks ago with two notes in his backpack. One said he had joined a lunchtime football league and another said he had signed on to be an altar server. Honest to goodness, I don’t know which one shocked me more. While he is the most athletic person in our family, that’s like being the fastest-running snail – a dubious honour at best. But his team finished in the middle of the pack in their lunchtime league and he seemed to enjoy it, which is all that really matters. I won’t be blowing his college fund in anticipation of his getting an athletic scholarship just yet, but if he learns to catch and throw the ball properly he’s already way ahead of his artsy parents.

Friday is the first mass he’ll be acting as altar server. I made him take a shower, but that’s as far as I can micromanage this one – he’s on his own from here. I wish I could be there to see him, though. I’m proud, and a little verklempt when I think of it. Turns out maybe he is getting to be old enough to make his own choices, and that surprises me most of all. He’s my favourite.

And speaking of Advent (eek, that was a stretch of a segue!) for the last couple of years we’ve been getting the boys Lego Advent calendars. 24 divides by 3 quite nicely, so the boys take turns opening a door each day. Today’s box contained a little computer on a little desk, with a little coffee cup. I was editing photos on the laptop as the boys played with it.

They took a girl mini-figure with long brown hair and sat her at the desk. “Look, it’s Mom! She’s playing on the computer!”

Untitled

I laughed along with them, but Lucas spoke up. “She’s not playing, she’s working!”

Clearly he’s my favourite!

Thoughts on Christmas shopping

So I think I’m finished most of my Christmas shopping. (Although, perhaps unwisely, I will probably continue to buy things for the next week or so at least. Stop me before I shop again!)

1230 pm

What’s interesting to me is not so much that I’m pretty much done two weeks before Christmas (remember, I’m an inveterate procrastinator) but that for the first time this year I think I did more online shopping than bricks-and-mortar store shopping. The only mall I visited was the Rideau Centre, and even that was very task-oriented: I knew what I wanted, I went in to one store, I got it. No endless hours of browsing and agonizing over the choices. I gotta say, I like this much better! And you know what I really love? Watching the parcel tracking online! I swear, shipment tracking is like NORAD’s Santa tracking for grown-ups – I check on all my deliveries at least once a day and love watching them leapfrog across the country to me!

It was only in 2007, the Christmas I was hugely pregnant with Lucas, that I did the first of my Christmas shopping online. Hard to believe it took only five short years for the online shopping to eclipse the mall wandering! With the conveniece of free shipping and an ever-greater selection of stores and merchandise, it just didn’t seem necessary to brave the crowds this year. I did do one particularly big blitz at Indigo kids, but with armed with a 20% off coupon and a store literally across the street from my office, that was none too painful either.

Choosing gifts has always been a meaningful task for me. As in, it’s very important for me to choose just the perfect gift for the people closest to me. I don’t want to steal Santa’s thunder or let the cat out of the Christmas sack, so I can’t tell you exactly what I found online, but let’s just say that 10 minutes on Google is a lot more productive than driving around to half a dozen specialty stores in search of the perfect gift!

Beloved, on the other hand, is not much of an online shopper. Then again, he also doesn’t live with one hand on the keyboard like I seem to do. What about you? Are you an online shopping junkie? Care to share a few tips on snagging a good deal online? Or are you still circling the parking lot, trying to get into the mall before it goes REALLY crazy next week?

Speaking of adventures in publishing…

Before I became obsessive about photography, I was in love with words. I’ve always loved to tell a tale, and to find the perfect words to do it justice. Once upon a time, I thought I might even write a book some day.

Well, I didn’t exactly write a book, but in the same week I self-published not one but TWO photography books on Blurb.ca, take a look at what else is in print: my very own article and photograph in Ottawa Family Living magazine. How fun is this?

Ottawa Family Living magazine, December 2012

OttFamLiv Mag Dec 2012 pg 2

That’s my byline! I wrote the article AND I took the photo of Watson’s Mill. I’m pretty darn pleased with myself. 🙂

Watch for your copy of Ottawa Family Magazine (also featuring my friends Sara McConnell and Karen Wilson, among others!) in this Saturday’s Ottawa Citizen.

Edited to add: oh look! Here it is online!

Great idea for teacher gifts – goat and chickens and sheep, oh my!

Instead of teacher gifts at Christmas, each year we have been buying a donation of a backpack of school supplies in each of the boys’ teachers’ names, and enclosing information about the donation in a hand-made card. The teachers seem to genuinely appreciate the notion, and it does support the principles of Catholic education.

Faced with a list of no less than seven teachers this year, I figured it was easier to just send a bigger donation of a goat to a family in need and dedicate it to the whole school. The boys are tickled by the idea of the goat, but there’s a lesson about privilege in there, too, and a conversation about how truly blessed we are. And look at me, I’m even doing this before 10 pm on the penultimate day before the Christmas break, which is when I traditionally get around to this. I’m so pleased with this idea that I thought I’d share it.

Here’s a press release I got from Care Canada with a bit more information:

(OTTAWA, December 3, 2012) – For too many Canadians, the holidays can be a time of stress and frustration.

The spirit of the season seems to get lost searching for a parking spot, slogging through malls and finding that “perfect gift” to be a dud.

This year, CARE is calling on Canadians to skip the mall and give their loved ones a gift that truly keeps on giving. A CARE gift will empower women and girls around the world to be healthy, educated and able to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

“It’s so easy to get caught up in the need to buy material items,” says Kevin McCort, president and CEO of CARE Canada. “A CARE gift is a perfect alternative for those who want to give their loved ones something that helps the world’s poorest communities build better lives for themselves.”

CARE’s new holiday catalogue features more than 40 fun and unique gift ideas that Canadians can give friends, family and coworkers to support CARE’s efforts to fight poverty worldwide. These include:

· Give the gift of a safe birth for a mom and baby in a developing country.

· The gift of a goat will improve a family’s nutrition and access to income.

· Send a girl to school for a year and give her the power to lift her and her community from poverty.

· Help a woman start a business and empower her family and community to thrive.

Why head out in the cold? Canadians can browse these gift ideas and more from home with the online catalogue at www.care.ca/holiday. Each gift comes with a personalized holiday electronic card that shoppers can send to their gift recipient.

Why not give the gift of donation of a chicken or a goat or a pack of school supplies instead of a coffee mug or other bit of kitsch? What do you think of this kind of donation gift? Would you want to receive something like this as a gift, or give it to the person who truly has everything? As a teacher, how do you feel about this type of gift?

A very good year with Fisher-Price

Phew, it sure was an exciting year to be blogging with Fisher-Price!

Aside from the amazing cruise and the equally amazing trip to Mexico, we got to play with some truly terrific new toys this year! There’s no doubt that our absolute favourite toy of the year was the Imaginext Eagle Talon Castle. It wins for sheer play value, for engaging all three boys, and for our new family inside joke – nobody hears a knock on a door anymore without calling out “Who eees it?” in the same sing-song voice that the toy bleats out when you open the drawbridge. Shhhhh, don’t tell, but we actually went out and BOUGHT the Imaginext Ogre and Dragon for Lucas this Christmas because it was the only thing he asked Santa for other than a Furby (and, well, he’s absolutely not getting a Furby. *shudder*)

We were also charmed by the Wheelies Loops and Swoops Amusement Park. At almost five years old, Lucas is on the upper edge of the age range for this one, but he still loves to shoot cars down the ramps and it delights him every single time the cars successfully navigate the loop-the-loop. I’d put this high on the Christmas gift giving list of anyone with a little boy to buy for!

Beloved’s favourite Fisher-Price surprise of the year was definitely the DC Superfriends Little People line. The intersection of superheros and Fisher-Price just about perfectly evokes his (not-so) inner child.

Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet

When I say the whole family plays with the Imaginext Batmobile, Bat Cave and Joker’s Lair, I’m not exaggerating! 😉

Na na na na na na - bat cat!

(Beloved called me from the toy store earlier this week as he was doing a little shopping for the boys. “Did you know they have a full line of Toy Story Little People now?” he asked. And he was so excited about the new Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Little People line that Santa may have to stick a set under the tree for him. ;))

Fisher-Price came out with some pretty amazing products for moms this year, too. Did you know, for example, that Fisher-Price makes diapers? They make adorable onesies called Stretch ‘Ems, too, which I am told are in fact awesomely stretchy. (I gave mine to a friend – she said they were her favourite onesies!) And they’ve even designed a series of new “Fast-Finder” diaper bags in a range of styles to suit every family.

All in all, it was another amazing year with Fisher-Price. Although Tristan made this card specifically to say thanks for the cruise, I think it does a good job of expressing our gratitude for an entire year of fun surprises.

Untitled

But wait! There’s more! I have one last Fisher-Price post to share with you this year (and another one to post over on the Fisher-Price site.) I’ll be back with the details in just a few days!

Disclosure: I am a Fisher-Price Play Ambassador and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

En français

It was only when I got an odd look from the man walking past me that I realized I’d been concentrating so hard on practicing an internal dialogue for my upcoming French exam that I had actually been speaking aloud. There I was, walking down George Street in the Byward Market in the pre-dawn gloaming, chattering away to myself badly in French along the lines of: “I work for the government of Canada in the field of public affairs, and I’m the team leader for the social media programs.” His half-smirk was priceless. Only in Ottawa is this not a mark of insanity but simply another beleagured anglophone in search of a bilingual bonus.

You might remember I spent most of my summer vacation in 2011 practicing for my reading and writing tests in French, which I needed to come back to the CRA from my stint with the Army web team. I passed those, but my oral exam results expired in October of 2011, so I’ve been taking lessons for the last year to gear up for it. When I last took the oral exam in 2006, I failed twice before getting the required B level result (B = bearable), so I am half expecting the same result this time. My exam is a week today – wish me luck!

I’m actually fairly confident. One thing I have going for me this time that I didn’t have going for me back in 2006 is two little French speakers to practice with at the dinner table. Tristan is in an immersion French program and Simon will follow suit next year. It both kills me and fills me with pride to hear their perfect little accents and the unselfconsious ease with which they speak in French. They’re more fluent after just a couple of years than I am after 20 bloody years of French lessons. Must be latent on Beloved’s side – his ancestors were apparently in Louis XIV’s court way back in the day. There’s no French on my side to fall back on, though, and I have a much easier time rolling a Scottish burr than rolling a French rrrrr.

It fascinates me how differently they are learning French than I did. No rote memorization of noun gender, no endless conjugation of verbs, no lectures on agreement of adjectives. They just Рspeak. And listen. And Рgasp! Рunderstand. They have no idea of what the pass̩ compos̩ might be, but they use it.

I had mixed feelings when the kids were wee about sending them through the immersion program at school. I was worried they wouldn’t be strong in either language. Clearly, I had nothing to worry about. They’re strong in both languages, and my four year old has a vocabulary that would make an English teacher proud. I have a deep envy of people for whom a second language comes easily and would love nothing more than to be unselfconcious when speaking French myself.

Alas, I think after 20 years of trying, that goal may be unattainable. I think I’m doomed to muddle along, translating in my head as I go and muttering to myself in an incomprehensible mix of both languages. So if you see me walking down the street talking to myself, just smile and say ‘bonjour!’

Look, I’m a book publisher too!

Squee! I am so excited! I just ordered this from Blurb.ca:

Why why WHY have I not done this before now?

I love this so much, and I think I will start offering them as part of my portrait sessions too! If you had a portrait session this year and you’d like me to make one up for you, shoot me an e-mail and we’ll chat!

And remember, if you’re making your own Blurb.ca book this year, I have a discount code that’s valid now through December 12, 2012.

Now what else can I make into a book? Should I start with 2011 and work my way back???

Santa? There’s an app for that

(Ha, I started writing this post and then remembered I’d written something similar. I dug around in the archives and found the one I was looking for, from 2009. I’m sure I haven’t looked at it since I published it three years ago, but I had taken exactly the same approach and even used some of the same wording in the original opening paragraph to this post that I used back then. I’m not sure if I’m plagiarizing myself or showing early signs of senility!)

Ahem. So, apparently back in 2009 I wrote this post about five ways to interact with Santa. The five ways were:

– the Portable North Pole
– letters and e-mails to Santa via Canada Post
– NORAD’s Santa Tracker
– follow Santa on Facebook
– follow Santa on Twitter

FWIW, the Portable North Pole is still my favourite, and NORAD’s Santa Tracker a close second. As far as I know, the magic of Christmas is intact in the imaginations of my offspring, and I credit the videos from PNP (and perhaps an unwillingness to jinx the appearance of presents on Christmas morning?) with their utter lack of skepticism.

Because they were so charmed by the PNP (and have even started wondering when their videos will ‘arrive’ this year in Mom’s inbox), I think they’ll be equally delighted with this: you can now make an appointment to Skype with Santa. How cute is that? You can reserve your child’s 10 minute Skype with Santa courtesy of the Toronto Eaton Centre now through December 23.

Although I’ve used Facetime, I am embarrassed to admit that this social media maven has never actually used Skype. Like making a Blurb book, this is another thing I’ve been meaning to conquer but never seemed to get around to, so it will be good practice. Feel free to share Skype tips!

I figure it’s only a matter of time before technology brings us a holographic Santa that pops out of the chimney on Christmas morning…

(Edited to add: and ha, again. Apparently I wrote about Christmas apps in 2010 too. Oy, I really am starting to repeat myself!!)