It's like a bank run; rumor spreads that Flickr is dying, so everyone pulls their photos and stops paying for pro accounts because they think Flickr is dying, causing Flickr to die.

Flickr is a huge site and they're not going to suddenly stop working one day. If they do decide to shut down, they're going to give users plenty of notice and probably offer easy ways to export photos and metadata. Until that happens, my photos are staying on Flickr and I'll continue to view my friends' photos on Flickr.