Facebook's Instagram photo sharing service has been hit with the first civil lawsuit to result from changed service.

In a proposed class action lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court, a California Instagram user levelled breach of contract and other claims against the company. Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said the complaint is without merit and the social notworking site would fight it vigorously.

When it announced its revised terms of service last week, Instagram spurred suspicions that it would sell user photos without compensation. But it also announced a mandatory arbitration clause, forcing users to waive their rights to participate in a class action lawsuit.
The backlash prompted Instagram founder and CEO Kevin Systrom to retreat partially a few days later, deleting language about displaying photos without compensation.

But the company did keep language that gave it the ability to place ads in conjunction with user content, and saying "that we may not always identify paid services, sponsored content, or commercial communications as such." The lawsuit was filed by San Diego-based law firm Finkelstein & Krinsk, it said that punters who do not agree with Instagram's terms can cancel their profile but then forfeit rights to photos they had previously shared on the service.

Instagram is telling its customers that possession is nine-tenths of the law and if you don't like it, you can't stop it.