Breaking the Chains of iPhoto FlickrExport

I used to be militant about using Free Software. I was one of those guys. I had ideals and convictions about how users of software should be treated. Sadly, I became complacent. Fighting for Freedom is a pain in the butt. It is not very rewarding on a day to day basis and people think you are nuts for fighting for the ideal. So, over time I adopted using OS X because it was sexy and it just worked. As time progressed I stopped using all the Free tools I had come to know and love and I stopped thinking about my freedoms as a user. Yes, I admit it, selfishness took over and fighting for freedom slipped away.

I think about this often. I complain this country is in trouble. I complain about corruption in the government. I complain that we don’t stand up and do something and so we are bound to suffer as citizens. You know what? I am a hypocrite. When it comes to something I care a LOT about (software/technology), I have not only enslaved myself, but I have begun to blindly look away while others are enslaved. In many respects, I have made my peace with being the type of person that can turn a blind eye and lie to myself.

However, tonight I encountered the type of bondage that I will NOT partake in. So FlickrExport, good bye and good riddance. You see I like photos. I even liked iPhoto enough to be a slave to it. I took the next step and made life easy by buying FlickrExport. This allowed me to get my photos to Flickr in a very easy fashion. So, the pain started when I put a Mac Mini in the house to control our house and media. I have a daughter old enough to take pictures and use Flickr. We wanted a photo station to hook any of the media devices in the house to and upload content for sharing. It was great except FlickrExport wanted a license key.

I went to my laptop to get the license key that I dutifully purchased to bind myself in chains. There was no key to be found. Okay, no problem I will just go to the FlickrExport website and request the key be resent to me. Yeah. That would require that Connected Flow actually give a crap about their paying customers. I was redirected to the Third Party system KAGI that handled the license transaction.

This is where frustration hit the roof and I realized that software license prison is painful. Requiring me to know the transaction id of the purchase or the credit card number and date of purchase is comical. The only way I would have that information is if I had the original email. If I had the original email I would not be going to KAGI’s site to try to retrieve it. Okay, I realize that perhaps I should have printed the key and receipt. I should have saved the email. You know what. NO! I don’t want to do business that way. So Connected Flow, take FlickrExport and shove it! I will have to open a separate program and take the extra minute to drag photos from iPhoto to Flickr Uploadr, but you know what my freedom is worth it, your license scheme is NOT! Sadly, Flickr Uploadr isn’t truly free, but at least it doesn’t have the license scheme from hell.

As my subscription for Flickr is up as of this month. I am really considering going somewhere else. Somewhere that has truly free tools.

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