Last week Photobucket changed its terms of service (without notice, I might add) so that in order to hotlink from its site, you must subscribe to the tune of $399.99/year. You ought to have a look at the furor this is causing on Twitter.
I had already upgraded (to their cheapest plan) to avoid the plague of ads and popups on the site, and I'm about to unsubscribe and demand my money back. Right now if you try to access the site, you get a bunch of HTML junk instead of the usual homepage. I think the site is very likely circling the drain.
Good to know there are other alternatives out there.