File sharing: you don’t mind when it’s a musician’s song or a designer’s game. When it’s your shitty Instagram photos it all changes, eh?

— Rains (@RainsBand) December 19, 2012

It’s difficult to know where to start when unpacking everything that’s wrong with that Tweet.

For a start, it makes the assumption that “the internet” is one vast undifferentiated mass, and the same people who took exception to Instragram’s TOS are those who illegally share music on an industrial scale. As one who probably spends a four-figure sum on music a year I have every right to take offence at that.

And while I don’t condone illegal filesharing, it’s true that I’m on record as being heavily critical of some of the draconian measures such as SOPA and ACTA proposed by the lobbyists for the big studios and record companies, which I see as a power-grab by big corporations which is unlikely to benefit many actual creators. I don’t see any contradiction or double standard between that and thinking Instagram’s TOS is a stupid dick move. Surely both are examples of abuse of power by big companies to screw over the little guys?

And finally, in terms of passive-aggressiveness, this one’s just off the scale. Exactly what do @RainsBand hope to achieve? If they’re going to complain about “Shitty Instagram photos”, do they really think it will make anyone more likely to listen to their shitty music