Yep, right out of the blue they changed business models. Supposedly, Photobucket felt they were getting ripped off by people using sites like ebay to post pics, to sell products, and not receiving any compensation. I had a premium account (which I paid $24.95 a year) which allowed me not to have to put up with all the ads. That's the only thing that saved me from this $399 fee (to host on 3rd party sites)...but that's only til March when my subscription runs out. I've got to get all my pics moved before then to another site, and have already opened an Imgur account in plans of it.
No one else is charging such a ridiculous price for storing photos...so I'm not sure how well it's going to work out for them. But if enough people stay with Photobucket, then I'm sure other sites will attempt to go the same route.
I don't think the market will bear it, but time will tell.
OFC