This holiday season is a time Instagram would like to forget...fast. Though the Facebook-owned photo-sharing site/service had recanted on its earlier decision of selling users' photos, royalty-free, to advertisers, a Southern California-based law firm has decided to go ahead and file a class action lawsuit.

Follow us

San Diego-based Finkelstein and Krinsk wants the federal court to restrain Instagram from changing its rules that would have allowed it to sell the users' photos, royalty-free, to advertisers for better, targeted advertising. The law firm had filed the lawsuit on Friday.

Following intense blacklash from Netizens and a threat by its most-followed user Kim Kardashian of closing her account, Instagram's founder Kevin Systrom had said in a blog post, "I want to be really clear: Instagram has no intention of selling your photos, and we never did. We don't own your photos, you do."

However, that assurance wasn't apparently enough to prevent Finkelstein and Krinsk from going ahead and filing the lawsuit. The law firm, which specializes in class action lawsuits, claims Instagram still isn't playing fair as customers who Instagram forfeit their rights over the photos they had shared on the service. And, the company still retains a non-exclusive license to use user photos.

"Instagram is taking its customers property rights while insulating itself from all liability," the filing said. "In short, Instagram declares that 'possession is nine tenths of the law and if you don't like it, you can't stop us.'"

The law firm, which wants Instagram to pay its legal fees, is confident that tens of thousands of users in California will join the class action lawsuit. Incidentally, the new terms of service, which Instagram plans to implement from mid-January, also includes a new mandatory arbitration clause that prevents Instagram users from bringing class action lawsuit against the company, except under very limited circumstances. Guess, Instagram won't be getting any gift from Santa this year.

Facebook, which bought Instagram in April for around $1 billion, claims the lawsuit is without any merit and vows to "fight it vigorously."

Instagram's new terms of service can be found here.

Join Our Conversation

Smartphones

ZTE Grand S Release Date In U.S. Put On Hold Until 2014

Nokia Yet Again Sues HTC Over Patent Infringement

Nexus 4 Rocking Android 4.3 Version Stars In New Photos, Video

HTC Desire 600 Now Official: Quad-Core Mid-Range Smartphone With Beats Audio, BlinkFeed

Tablet / Laptop / PC

Apple Drops Prices On Refurbished iPad Mini, iPad 4 Tablets

Hisense Introduces Sero 7 Tablets With $99 Starting Price To Challenge Nexus 7

Sony Xperia Tablet Z Gets Dunked In A Fishtank, Survives

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 Stars In New Video

Gadgets

Google Glass Is Creepy, Says Early Glass User

Xbox One And PlayStation 4: On The Matter Of Shared And Used Games

Recharge Your Phone In 20 Seconds With This Revolutionary Device

Ouya Will Be At E3 2013, But Not Where You Think

OS / Software

Nexus 4 Rocking Android 4.3 Version Stars In New Photos, Video

Former Nokia Team Jolla, Announces First Sailfish Powered Smartphone For Asia

Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean Update For Samsung Galaxy S3 Transform It Into Galaxy S4 (To Some Extent)

iOS 7 To Come With Flickr, Vimeo Integration

Internet / Social Media

AT&T Promises Cellular Video Calls, Mobile Video Chat For All Customers

Flickr Boasts 'Spectacular' Redesign, Offers A Whopping 1TB Of FREE Storage

Download 40 GB In A Second: Researchers Set Up World's Fastest Wi-Fi Network In Germany

YouTube Shoppable Videos - Will Google Hit A New Jackpot?

What's App

Tiger Woods 12 and NBA Jam Are The Latest EA Sports Games To Come Exclusive To Nokia Lumia

Microsoft YouTube App For Windows Phone Still Up And Running Despite Google Takedown Notice

Pandora Updates Web And Mobile Apps With Easier Facebook Sharing

Nokia Launched LiveSight For HERE Maps On Windows Phone 8