To make the point in just a few sentences, the word 'fraudulent' best captures how I view the origin of the ringtone market. Consumers were deliberately misled

To make the point in just a few sentences, the word 'fraudulent' best captures how I view the origin of the ringtone market. Consumers were deliberately misled about the value of the product being offered. They were just charging for the service, they were lying that the service was even necessary. Sure it's not black and white, but Verizon etc. erred on the side of anti-consumer behavior in the case of ringtones and got away with it. The reason people didn't know how to upload things to their phones is because the phone companies made it really hard. Since we're talking about facebook, it would be like facebook making it difficult to include links to external sites and charging for the priviledge. A "facebook gift" picture of a flower has value because it's a facebook gift. A verizon-provided ringtone has the same value as an identical recording of the same ringtone you uploaded yourself.