Instagram Will Give Users The Option To Prevent Others From Embedding Their Photos

If you were to use a photo or image or video created by someone else on your website, typically you’d have to obtain permission first, or at the very least give credit where credit’s due. However, due to the fact that some platforms like Instagram support embedding, in which you’re embedding a part of Instagram instead of the actual image, it has created a bit of a gray area.

However, it seems that Instagram has decided that they will at the very least now give copyright holders the option of deciding whether or not they want their content embeddable. This new option will give Instagram users the choice as to whether or not they will allow the embed feature for their posts, meaning if they disable it, third-parties won’t be able to embed their content onto their websites.

This is thanks to the efforts by the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and the National Press Photographer’s Association (NPPA). According to Alicia Calzada, the NPPA Deputy General Counsel, “We have been in contact with Instagram for well over a year in pursuit of a fix for this problem. We are grateful that they were receptive to our requests to solve this.”

Prior to this, there were publications that ran into legal trouble over embedding of images, such as Mashable who were taken to court over the embedding of an image. However, the court ruled that embedding an image from Instagram was not infringement. There was also another case involving photographer Paul Nicklen, who won a copyright lawsuit against another publisher over an embedded video and screenshot that did not have his permission.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Instagram, Legal, Social Hit