Instagram asks judge to dismiss ToS class action lawsuit

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The federal court judge, taking care of the Instagram class action lawsuit, was asked to drop the charges by officials of the photo-sharing website.

For those unfamiliar with the matter, a couple of weeks before the end of 2012, Instagram announced that it was changing its Terms of Service and published the new set of rules on the internet. Reading the new ToS, a user discovered a controversial clause which suggested that the company had full rights over users’ photos and could sell or use them in advertising, without notifying or paying a fee to the respective users.

This caused a public outcry and a mass exodus, as millions of users were reported to have stopped using Instagram. The company issued an immediate response, saying that the reports are not true and that the new ToS are similar to those found at Instagram’s parent company, Facebook.

instagram-class-action-lawsuit-dismiss-claims Instagram asks judge to dismiss ToS class action lawsuit News and Reviews

Instagram class action lawsuit may be dismissed after the company claimed that it had been filed before the new Terms of Service went into effect.

Instagram class action lawsuit disputed because it was filed before changes went into effect

However, co-founder Kevin Systrom confirmed that the Terms of Service will be changed even though the company would have never sold the photos. Well, this was not enough as Instagram was hit with a class action lawsuit, started by Lucy Funes and the San Diego-based law firm Finkelstein & Krinsk on December 21, 2012.

Yesterday, Instagram’s lawyers asked the judge to drop the lawsuit because it had been filed even before the changes went into effect. For that matter, the company is right as the new ToS became “valid” as of January 19, 2013.

Additionally, the new rules say that Instagram has the right to put ads next to the users’ photos, but it does not have the right to sell the images.

But wait, there’s more!

According to the new Instagram ToS, users do not have the right to file a class action lawsuit against the company under most conditions. However, this does not matter as the lawsuit had been filed before the ToS went into effect. The problem with the lawsuit is that plaintiff Lucy Funes continued using the photo-sharing service even after filing it, said Instagram.

The company added that she could have just deleted her account before January 19.

In its demand, Instagram also disputed the claims of the plaintiff. The company said that it did not gain the rights over the users’ photos.

For the time being, both parties have not issued further comments, while the judge has not made a decision yet.

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