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Flickr to Grant Commercial API Key to Competitors
eobanb writes "The Yahoo-owned photo sharing site Flickr has come under fire recently for the perceived 'lock-in' that their API creates. Flickr's terms of service state clearly that all photos uploaded to Flickr by users are owned by their respective users, yet Flickr's API only allows uploading, not exporting. Surprisingly, Flickr developer Stewart Butterfield posted in the thread on Flickr: "I actually had a change of heart and was convinced by Eric's position that we definitely should approve requests from direct competitors as long as they do the same. That means (a) that they need to have a full and complete API and (b) be willing to give us access." This means that users will soon be able to freely move data between different photo-sharing sites, like Zooomr (which has already implemented the Flickr API), Google PicasaWeb, 23hq, or Tabblo."
Who uses these things anyways. *IM* + send file .... or just e-mail a rar. I can't see the use of this stuff at all. Imageshack if you need to post stuff on a website and done (no signup and it always works...)
I don't see why the term "pro-corporate" needs to be a epithet instead of a positive note. Businesses in any unregulated market such as the web are the prime example of why the free market works best -- flickr is a corporation. Yes, it is a big-bad-daddy-business for those anti-market politicos here (conservative and liberal alike). They're taking a big step here by offering their customers an exit policy without contractual cost, and this is a good step for corporations as a whole.
Why do most corporations NOT allow these exit offerings? Because they're licensed or regulated by the State -- they're given an advantage, and they use their excessive contracts to keep that advantage. Don't think this is a "big business" fault, it is a "big State" fault that the businesses are taking advantage of.