Let's take a small step back here; just like the anti-Google sentiment that was about a few months back it seems is Facebooks turn to face the fire (mostly thei

Let's take a small step back here; just like the anti-Google sentiment that was about a few months back it seems is Facebooks turn to face the fire (mostly their fault). A lot of what they are doing is, at best, ethically unsound or, at worst, privacy invading. In this case I'd say (from initial reading) it sits on the scale slap bang in the middle of "a douchebag thing to do". But. It doesn't feel hypocritical because their argument is that their ToS attempt to deny users the right to access their accounts this way. The Email services, as far as I am aware, that FB scrape either explicitly allow or do not disallow such action. It seems "axe grinding" to bring that into the discussion. Notably this article does not appear to discuss or link to articles about the suit Facebook has filed [meta point: I hate that, it feels sneaky]. It appears (from research) that it is an long running dispute between Power and Facebook. They have also filed Trademark infringements and other stuff against them at the same time (no comment on the general legitimacy of such claims for the moment). I haven't fully digested all the information to have a complete opinion on this but... I think that this is part of Facebook trying to win the wider battle with Power.com, I'm not sure it reflects a deliberate move by them to try and turn ToS violations into criminal violations. However I am definitely in agreement with the EFF that if a potential side effect of any eventual ruling will bring in such criminal elements then it is a bad thing and should be fought. Hopefully when I can actually open all the PDF filings the picture will be clearer :) References (I believe this is the suit being referred to): http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/2009/01/facebook-vs-power-ventures.html http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/2009/01/facebook-vs-power-v... http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/digest/9th-circuit/facebook-inc-v-power-ventures-inc http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/digest/9th-circuit/facebook-inc-... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook,_Inc._v._Power_Ventures,_Inc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook,_Inc._v._Power_Venture.... EDIT: amusingly TechCrunch seems to have the best summary of things from last year... http://techcrunch.com/2009/07/09/powercom-countersues-facebook-over-data-portability/ http://techcrunch.com/2009/07/09/powercom-countersues-facebo...