lol, it could only be a ransom if there weren't other image hosts out there, people are over reacting about this big time.
It could be a lot worse, when imageshack pulled the same sort of thing they made their whole service pay to play and removed the ability for free users to even access/download their photos.
At least for now it seems photobucket users can still link to their pictures and download them even if they cant embed them on other sites, though that will probably go next.
I dont really disagree with them charging ebay sellers and online stores for image embedding since it is using their server bandwidth and all and when the service was for personal use not business, but I dont agree with the way they're handling the matter.
Then again I never liked photobucket anyway, that's why when imageshack changed into a pay site I picked imgur