Instagram has requested the court to dismiss the lawsuit against them for change in terms of service, Wednesday.
December 17, 2012 Instagram announced a change in its terms of service wherein users feared their pictures shared on the photo-sharing service would be sold to advertisers. After receiving a lot of complains, co-founder Kevin Systrom amended the policy and addressed the issue saying there could have been a communication problem owing to the language used in the changed policy. Following the amendment, Lucy Funes, an Instagram user filed a lawsuit against the website accusing them of breach of contract among other claims.
In their defence, Instagram claim that Funes' lawsuit is completely baseless. According to the Facebook-owned service, the terms of service also mentioned that a user could delete his or her account before the new policies were implemented January 19, 2013. However, Funes continued to use her account.
Instagram also disputed Funes' claims that under the new terms of service, she was required to hand over rights of all photos shared on the website to Instagram. Systrom clarified this in his blog after the new amendments to the terms were made.
"Instagram users own their content and Instagram does not claim any ownership rights over your photos," Systrom wrote. "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."
Funes' attorney is yet to comment on this recent development in the lawsuit.
