Just another example of things correcting themselves in the digital space. No such thing as a free lunch. We will see significantly more of this as the digital economy matures.
Sure, it's heavy handed, but it's a bit rich all of this "how dare they" talk when nobody paid a cent in the first place. Want service? Pay for it. Anything else just sounds like whiney millennials who think movies come from BitTorrent and cost nothing to make.
TV, radio, local papers have all been available for free (cash wise) for a long time, the payment is in the form of consuming some advertising. This isn't a new concept only applicable to the digital medium, other far more expensive to run business models have survived this way for many years. This is far from just an "example of things correcting themselves" this is more like a bait and switch measure born out of corporate greed. A small fee comparable to other available services wouldn't have attracted anywhere near the outcry.
Tangent? It's all valid analysis about funding models and trends in digital media as far as I can see?
I think it is obviously a tangent when you are comparing journalism to picture hosting, it may somewhat be related but not really relevant to the point most are making hence a tangent. The point most are making is that Photobucket has gone from offering an ad-supported service to one charging an exorbitant fee overnight. Yes, it is their legal right to do so, but I'll very much enjoy watching their demise. I still haven't decided if just deleting my account, or using up the other 99% of my available hosting so they have to store it whilst not ever visiting their site again for them to get ad revenue from me is the better option.
As an aside, I use an Adblocker on sites that I think overdo advertising, or sites I have no intention of supporting. On Photobucket home page it just blocked
53 ads then clicked through to my library and it blocked
61 ad's
I think that should put to bed most of the "shrinking revenue" and "free lunch" theories to bed.