Isn’t it time to update @Instagram Community Guidelines about “regramming” photos?

Do as Instagram says not as Instagram does, really?

I recognize it: I have developed an healthy interest for the terms of service (TOS) of social media platforms since I invested 19 hours of my life reading from top to bottom several of them when I was working on a conference presentation last year.

Call it PTSD or something, but there’s stuff you can’t erase from your memory when you spend that amount of time reading prose written by lawyers to be read by lawyers.

So, when Michael O’Neil mentioned over Twitter that the official Instagram account of Instagram (yeah, I know it’s getting meta) had been “regramming” photos from other accounts for some time now, I had to see for myself.

@karinejoly @post_kate Sharing others photos is engrained in the community. Even Instagram does it. Just ask permission first. #casesmc

— Michael O'Neill (@mikeoneill76) November 7, 2014

Here’s an example with the latest post from the Instagram account of Instagram at the time of this writing.

“My parents kept asking me why I always gaze up into the sky and what do I see there,” recalls Heinsburg auto body painter Markus Einspannier (@marcus1spannier) who developed a passion for clouds as a little kid. When given a Polaroid camera for his 13th birthday, he began experimenting immediately. “I started holding up different items towards the sky. Or I would jump in the air until the photograph created the illusion of me standing on the cloud.” Today, Markus is lovingly referred to by his friends as “Wolkenonkel” (“Cloud Uncle”) and channels the innocence and endless imagination of a child's view on the world." As he's come to realize, “Everything is possible—and nothing is unthinkable.” Photo by @marcus1spannier

A photo posted by Instagram (@instagram) on Nov 11, 2014 at 5:55am PST

What do Instagram Community Guidelines say?

Instagram Community Guidelines explains not once but twice that resharing (“regramming”) photos is not ok:

First in the section titled “What do to do:”

“Do share photos and videos that you’ve taken.
Instagram is a great way to share your life through photos and videos, but we have to ask that you don’t share photos or videos of someone else’s life. Since people own the rights to all photos or videos they have uploaded using our service, we ask that you respect their copyright ownership. If you want to express your excitement over a beautiful photo or video, it’s best to double tap on the post to like it!”

Second in the section titled “What not to do:”

“Don’t share photos or videos that aren’t yours.
This includes other people’s posts, and/or things that you have copied or collected from the Internet. Accounts that solely consist of only this type of content may be disabled at any time.”

Why not update your Community Guidelines (or build a “regramming” feature), Instagram?

Now, when you look at what Instragram (and others) do by showcasing photos from its followers, this makes total sense.

Sharing a photo from a member of the community allows to showcase great work and engage even more the community.

By providing credit to the author of the photo and asking permission, Instagram covers its basis with almost 0% risk of getting flagged for copyrights infringement.

Anyway, in Instagram case, anybody posting photos on Instagram has indeed granted Instagram the right to use the photo (told you this would be meta)

If it were not the case, I guess Instagram could also terminate the account of anybody even trying to sue them for this – making the whole issue moot – since Instagram TOS also specifies that it can terminate any account without any reason (yep, you agreed to that when you created your Instagram account).

You (or your school) would not be able to do this though and would be 100% liable for any content you post on your Instagram account (yep, this is also specified in Instagram TOS).

So, what works for the Instagram account doesn’t apply to your (school) account.

Yet, since “regramming” is widely used, why not include it in Instagram Community Guidelines, so they reflect better current acceptable practices and explain to the community how this should be done?

The alternative would be to create a built-in feature to support “regramming” – to natively ask the permission from the original Instagram user (you could just star the request to approve it) and repost it nicely on your account.

I understand that Instagram TOS protects the company against any possible lawsuits, but why not invest in this kind of features (or at least update the guidelines), so everybody can stop breaking the TOS?
Megan Bernier reminded me she wrote a post asking for a solution back in September 2013 after seeing my original post on Instagram TOS.

If you share this post enough on Twitter, maybe this time we might get the attention of Instagram and an official answer.

UPDATE: Instagram has updated its Community Guidelines!

UPDATE April 2015: Instagram has finally clarified its community guidelines so you can now regram photos if you have the permission to do so from the copyright owner.