The really big issue here is that thousands of people contributed to Wikipedia on the assumption it was a public utility by the people for the people and what FB has done is to cynically commercialize the value of all that content into its own platform to try and create the illusion of substance against which it is selling advertising against.

As if it wasn’t bad enough to rape your privacy on an opt out basis, (i.e. you’ve been screwed but it’s okay if you pull your pants back up!) this is a disgusting abuse of the trust people vested in Wikipedia, Creative Commons, Facebook and the spirit of the web generally.

Tim O’Reilly recently said; “We need to heed the advice of management gurus Tom Peters and Esther Dyson. Tom reminds us to “Fail. Forward. Fast.” Esther’s tag line is Always make new mistakes. With that in mind, I’m willing to cut Facebook some slack. For now.”……. So does that mean BP is off the hook then?… of course not! Facebook is no longer a schoolboy’s plaything, so let’s stop forgiving its ‘du&b f*&!’ mistakes on that basis.

If Facebook is allowed by the press and government to get away with this, it is a very sad reflection of how power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely… in my opinion!

And FB is going to sell ads against this “SPontent”? To idiot agencies and unsuspecting advertisers?

TO’B

Is it any wonder that people are less able to communicate or possess the ability to even interact at all without their tools? So much for the ‘new’ media.