Ahhh, those motherfuckers... after years of using them they have decided that they want me to pay them a $399.99 a year fee to link images...

I think not...

I may rig up an automated script to upload a High res image of "FUCK YOU PHOTOBUCKET" over and over until it fills up my allotted storage and the abandon the account...

On June 26, the Photobucket blog briefly noted its updated Terms of Service, which went into effect on June 20. In the three-sentence post, there is no mention of the end of hotlinking unless users pay a $399 annual fee. After clicking to view the new terms, there is a list of three paid account plans, but only the $400 Plus 500 Plan allows for third-party image hosting.

Loyal Photobucket users are furious; many describing the move with terms such as ransom and extortion.

Anyone else surprised #photobucket isn't offering Bitcoin as the only method of payment?

— McMike (@_McMike_) June 29, 2017
Instead of paying the ransom annual fee, many Photobucket users are turning to other sites that still allow hotlinking.

Stampboards pointed out that users “have no guarantee [Photobucket] will still be in business even in a month the way this disaster is rolling out.” Instead of paying to remove the “’WannaCry’ Gangster like $US400 cash Demand dial,” the forum announcement suggested, “someone at Photobucket with a brain will see the disaster they have unleashed, and back off totally, or in large part in the next week.”

A few other users have come up with workarounds, such as a Chrome extension that is supposed to show the actual embedded image instead of the error message and a fix that is supposed to convert blocked Photobucket images into a working URL.