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Want your images back? That'll be $5

lutr.dev

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Re: Want your images back? That'll be $5

#61

Post by mihaaly »

Just like with almost everything Photobucket was sold or raised money from investors throughout the years repeatedly.

That money they want back!

From somewhere, any way, pimping the EBITDA and ARR numbers to the expected one for the 5-7 years resale cycle or such. ARR needs subscription, and if you have user lock in - well, otherwise you wouldn't buy some trivial service like this wouldn't you? You counted on the lock-in, that is central to you 'business model', or more like exploitation - then try cash it. Now! You can alienate people down the line? Let that be the problem of the next owner of the product, you will cash out soon anyway. And next PE look at the price/ARR ratio mostly, anyway, it will be a fine add-on to some other PE target at least, if the ARR ratio is fine.

PE is shitting where it eats.... and others eat too ... ruining it for everyone. Don't care. Why don't they buy oil or beef farms or whatever, why they need to ruin the internet too?

Re: Want your images back? That'll be $5

#63

Post by Uncle_Brumpus »

okramcivokram wrote: post #18

I have received the email that my photobucket account is going to be deleted, so I've logged in after who knows how many years and got offered the same thing, to subscribe. Instead I've went to close the account and in the process (or somewhere else, don't remember exactly) there was an option to first download all the data which I've used and got the images back (there were just a few as I haven't used the service r…

This is the real tip. Thank you.

I had gone through a whole process probably 2 years ago now to "recover" my account that I lost the original email and forgot the password. I eventually got into the account before they paywalled it, and procrastinated downloading everything because I couldn't find a good way to do it in bulk.

Interestingly, you can request the download, and then just NOT delete your account, which is what I plan on doing out of spite. My 81MB of ~600 cringe avatar edits from Gaiaonline circa 2007 will forever take up that tiny space on their servers as they hope and pray that one day I might toss them $5.

Re: Want your images back? That'll be $5

#64

Post by swiftcoder »

echoangle wrote: post #31
Hnrobert42 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL. Article 15 says you have the right to request the data and they must provide it to you. Article 20 says you have the right to get your photos back in a machine readable format. Sadly, this only applies to those in the EU. Americans can keep taking it, which makes sense as it's an American company that's giving it. Sigh.

Honestly I would just try doing a GDPR request and see what happens. They first have to find out if you’re from the EU, and they probably will err on the side of caution and just fulfill it.

> They first have to find out if you’re from the EU

Technically, you don't have to be from the EU. You just need to be in the EU (which includes Americans who are just vacationing in the EU).

Re: Want your images back? That'll be $5

#66

Post by lutr »

uberex wrote: post #38
lutr wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right?? I mean again, I could have gotten a refund in 48 hours, per the smallprint... But I noticed it about ~3 months too late, while writing about this. But it's okay. Getting those $5 back would make Photobucket look slightly better in my mind, and I don't want that.

You can charge back months after. Best to ask for refund first (as in now, despite their legally irrelevant time limit) as the CC would expect you to do that first.

Huh, never did a charge back in my life (I'm not from the US, charge backs aren't a big thing here). I'll give it a shot, just for fun :).

I use a debit card and I wasn't even sure you can do charge backs with them. But yes, apparently!

Re: Want your images back? That'll be $5

#67

Post by GJim »

hk__2 wrote: post #9
echoangle wrote: post #3

Just do a GDPR request and get all the data they have on you for free. I’m pretty sure they would have to give you your photos as part of that.

Are photos considered PII?

Ummmm

The GDPR also covers data portability, so preventing your data (not just personal data) from being held hostage.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-re...

Re: Want your images back? That'll be $5

#68

Post by mbo »

Why are we complaining about this as a corporate greed thing? (I do agree that it's bad that there were no images preserved and that component of the post is justifiable)

Obviously Photobucket completely failed to properly monetize, and was sold to Fox and then offloaded to some no-name startup called Ontela (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photobucket). The service could have been shutdown completely and the harddrives fed into the shredder. Instead some former PE vulture did the math and figured out that preservation might make some money. You _can_ access old Photobucket images (when it works) that would otherwise get a median of 0 hits a month, while the rest of the internet succumbs to linkrot. Seems like a win-win for everyone involved.

Re: Want your images back? That'll be $5

#70

Post by MisterTea »

okramcivokram wrote: post #18

I have received the email that my photobucket account is going to be deleted, so I've logged in after who knows how many years and got offered the same thing, to subscribe. Instead I've went to close the account and in the process (or somewhere else, don't remember exactly) there was an option to first download all the data which I've used and got the images back (there were just a few as I haven't used the service r…

I did the same thing. I contacted support via email who told me to go through the deletion process and near the end, there would be an option to save your photos free of charge. I downloaded my photos, looked through them, then deleted the account.
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