yeah just ran into that myself. As a 'free' service they're probably safe from suit. It is indeed an attempted highway robbery, on the eve of a national holiday. And probably they've just committed corporate suicide. And compounded it by demanding payment of an annual fee up front. $400/yr to host images. When damn near everybody has 'free' storage space via their ISP and via their electronic devices. I've got 4 other places I can put images, not counting the discussion website I admin, which has 'unlimited' bandwidth and space.
I expect a huge exmigration from Photobucket. Can't imagine what their management was thinking with this no-notice coercive hostage-taking / attempted heist.
btw you have to download each sub-album separately to get all your images. Doing it at the top level just gets whatever random stuff you had there. I have / had 3700 images across multiple sub-albums, 13yrs worth. A few bucks would have been worth it. IF their product had better uptime and less clumsy upgrades. Now, at this late date to block access and demand $400? Screw'em.