The popular photo sharing app Instagram has announced changes to their terms and conditions that give them the right to sell or license your photos to third parties. That means your photos could be potentially used to help Instagram turn a profit. Instagram does not claim ownership of your photos but rather the right to make money from them. The photo sharing service has been under increased pressure to find a viable business model since being acquired by Facebook for over $1 billion.

The changes to the terms and conditions will provide Instagram the ability to use your photos as advertisements.  Here's an excerpt from the new terms and conditions.

"Instagram does not claim ownership of any Content that you post on or through the Service. Instead, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content that you post on or through the Service"

Instagram goes on in their blog post apologizing for the "dryness" of making the changes and says "Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you."

Before you get too upset and announce your intentions to boycott Instagram. Keep in mind their a business who created a free service. That free service costs a lot of money to keep online with everything from employee salaries, to servers, and network bandwidth. The changes to the terms and conditions will not prohibit you from selling the photos or licensing them in the slight chance you're someone who stands a chance to make money from your pics. The changes to the terms and conditions will go into effect on January 16th.