Embedded movie flap starts war of words between Web 2.0 titans.
Image sharing service Photobucket is crying foul over a recent move by the social networking site Myspace.com to block its content in user profiles.
Photobucket in a recent promotion encouraged its users to post a slideshow in their profiles advertising the Spiderman 3 movie. The marketing campaign violated Myspace's terms of service that prohibit users from posting third-party advertisements and prompted Myspace to block all Photobucket content.
Photobucket claims that it received no advance warning before the site blocked user-created movies from Myspace profiles and bulletins.
"We are not happy about this and we’re pretty sure you’re not happy either," Photobucket said in a posting to its users.
"We believe that by limiting your ability to personalize your pages with content from any source, Myspace is contradicting the very belief of personal and social media."
Photobucket said that users would be unable to embed videos and "remix" video mash-up files in their Myspace profile page, but that the files will remain available on Photobucket and should work at other sites which allow video embedding. Regular photos and slide shows will still be accessible on Myspace.
In a statement, Myspace said that the videos are being blocked because a recent Photobucket promotion encouraged users to violate Myspace's rules.
The company also denied Photobucket's claims that it didn't receive any warning, instead arguing that the comapny willingly chose to continue the Spiderman campaign.
When contacted, Photobucket maintained that it had not recieved any warning from Myspace. Furthermore, the company said that the movies did not generate any revenue for either Photobucket or the advertisors. Photobucket also pointed out that slideshows with the same advertising content were still being allowed on Myspace.
"Myspace became successful because of the creativity of you, its users, and because it offered a forum for self-expression," said Photobucket.
"Limiting users’ ability to post their content would seem to be contrary to Myspace’s mission and certainly to ours."