Yeah, it's like they assume that everybody linking images to third parties is a company making money doing it. Maybe there's a lot of that going on?
Perhaps they did a study and found that enough of their users were corporate types that would pony up to keep doing business as usual and they could afford to lose the many that were not. Seems plausible given the high cost they're applying. Seems way more than the typical internet monthly fee for something these days.
Maybe it was a Russian hack? Maybe a clerical error and when they see how many have decided to go elsewhere it will register.
But really, it doesn't effect people uploading pics right? Just getting those apparently expensive third party charges.
Don't know about such things myself. Just hanging out with the little folk enjoying family pictures.;D
Paul