Well, at least they've learned that the arbitrary imposition of $400-500 fees would irritate a few people! Makes $50 seem like a bargain... and it is really, we're just not used to paying anything at all.
Photobucket, by the way, very quietly restored the embedded links to people's images a few months ago, albeit with a nasty watermark on them. If you want to get rid of the watermark they'll now charge you about $50 p.a., give or take. I suspect they lost too many customers, and far too much goodwill, to get enough people to pay them anything at all so I don't know if that will be a long-term viable option but it's there should you want it.
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The Hubble Telescope has just picked up a sound from a fraction of a second before the Big Bang. The sound was "Uh oh".