Yes, I violated your terms of service. This was done quite unawares, as hundreds, possibly thousands of artisans are violating your TOS in the exact same way. The fact that you singled me out for some reason and closed down my account is irritating, but understandable; someone probably reported the violation and you can’t help what reports you receive. The fact that you have been rude to me during our conversations about this matter is worse. You sent a comply notice that was rather vague, and I complied with it to the best of my ability. You did not say, “Please remove the photos.” You said, “Please remove links and/or sales verbiage and/or “for sale” sets.” I did so to the best of my ability to figure out exactly what you wanted. You then shut down my account. I sent you a very calm e-mail outlining my case. You sent me an e-mail back that, basically, said I was shit out of luck. I asked why me in particular when scores of other artisans and artists do the same thing. You shot back a reply that I was free to report them if I came across one that violated your TOS.
Incidentally, your replies were either typed by non-English-speaking persons or by someone who is very poor at his or her native language; although I do recognize the value of people from all nations and all levels of education, perhaps a customer service job that requires written English in diplomatic overtones is not the proper position for said people.
Two things clearly bother me about this little scuffle that we have had. The first is that I received this e-mail from you:
In joining Flickr, you agreed to abide by the Terms of
Service and Community Guidelines. Flickr accounts are
intended for individual use, for our members to share
original content that they’ve created, not to sell stuff:“Don’t Use Flickr for Commercial Purposes Flickr is for
personal use only. If you sell products, services or
yourself through your photostream, we will terminate your
account. Any other commercial use of Flickr, Flickr
technologies (including APIs, Flickrmail, etc), or Flickr
accounts must be approved by Flickr.”http://www.flickr.com/guidelines.gne
Please remove the URLs that link to your store/auction(s)
from underneath your photos/video and/or any sales verbiage
or “for sale” sets at your earliest convenience so that
we don’t have to take further action on your account.
I did what you requested and removed the “for sale” language (which, really, was pretty benign in the first place–it wasn’t a spammy ad). I’m also an artisan, and my works are quite personal to me–I should think I would still be able to post the photos themselves since they are handcrafted and designed by me, much the way that others post their art and artistic photographs. I changed the descriptions and then sent an e-mail back about the case. I heard nothing back, so I assumed everything was A-OK until I went to my Flickr and it was disabled. What bothers me here is that I did what you asked. Because you didn’t provide me with specifics, I assumed that I could still post my hand-crafted art if I removed the sales language, which is one of the items on your list.
This leads me to the second thing about this that bothers me, and that is your complete lack of customer service in this matter. After changing the descriptions for every photo, I sent an e-mail back to report that I had changed the descriptions as requested and asked if it was possible to have my photos reinstated. I received no reply after I, in good faith, complied with your request–no reply to confirm that I had followed the and/or/if/else/when laundry list of vague instructions or to let me know that I was still considered in violation. Instead, my account was simply shut down without notification. The reply when I contacted Flickr was:
“Having a photostream full of products shots to be used for
commercial purposes is still a violation of the Flickr
guidelines.
You’re best to seek out a different website that is better
suited for commercial purposes.”
Perhaps this is a backhanded compliment, since I took all of the photos myself–these are in no way professional product shots, these shots are NOT product shots that are used on my Etsy or on my website; I fail to see why I can’t post photographs of my handmade jewelry, since I took out the sales language. After all, if I take out the sales language–which I did–it simply becomes me, an artisan, sharing my art. Had I never had the sales language to begin with–which I took out–I doubt it would have been an issue because they would not have been “product” images since they aren’t being used as product images in a shop. This makes sense to me, but apparently, once I’ve been shut down by you, there’s absolutely no customer service for me. I doubt you even took the time to look into it, which irritates me because I tried my best to meet you halfway and do what you asked me to do.
This is where you and I part ways forever, Flickr. Actually, this is where Yahoo! and I part ways. Other than occasionally checking my spam-filled e-mail accounts (your spam filter is terrible, btw, Yahoo!), I have little to no use for you–especially if you have such disregard for me as a user.
