This just in: Photos taken as hostages on Flickr
Johan is in the same situation as me; had Flickr Pro for a while and didn’t really feel the need to continue it. My pro account expired in April and I should have backed up all my photos because now I have to pay $24,95 to be able to do so. With a free account only the latest 200 photos are available. Not only public but in the organization tool in Flickr as well as the API.
This is a very good example of the type of problems that exists with storing data in the cloud. We as users must demand access to our own data, whether we continue to pay for the service or not.
I am making a photo gallery myself and it is currently in beta. I plan to include an import function that will utilize the Flickr API; download the most recent photos and delete them when their saved on my own server. This way I should be able to get out all of MY photos.