I read through the EFF brief yesterday (in connection with a related post) and summarized the key points of the legal dispute on this issue here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1320040.
Essentially, the criminal statute prohibits unauthorized access to user data on a network (among other things), a precedent exists by which ConnectU was found to have violated the criminal statute for having scraped user emails (and spammed the users) without their permission and in violation of Facebook's terms of service, and Facebook is now claiming that Power Ventures is similarly violating the statute by accessing user data in violation of its TOS - EFF (filing its brief as a "friend of the court" and not as a party to the dispute) claims that this is absurd given that users own their own information and therefore it cannot be a crime for Power to access it with their permission (even if it is a done in violation of the TOS).
FB's position on this does in fact appear to be absurd, and I would strongly suspect the claim will be bounced from the case.
Until now I've been mostly ignoring the uproar over Facebook privacy concerns - if I didn't want people knowing stuff about me, I just wouldn't put it online.
However, if Facebook wins this particular battle (and if I've understood the battle itself correctly), then I will leave. It would be evil for them to claim that my data is theirs, and that I can't authorize a third party to access it.
> If any violation of terms of use is criminal, users who shave a few years off their age in their profile, claim to be single when they are married, or change jobs or addresses without updating Facebook right away would also have violated the criminal law.
Facebook is disturbingly anti-user. Such hypocrisy! With one hand they build their platform on open-source tools that thrived on data sharing, and with the other they take away the basic rights of online users.
I'm very close to saying forget it. I can see all the pictures anyways. (At the rate their privacy is decreasing.)
As I said the other day I don't currently read much into what Facebook are saying - it's a legal argument as part of their much wider fight with Power.com. The EFF are, quite rightly, stepping in to try and stop any ruling in this case opening the way for ToS violations to come under criminal law.
I'm yet to be convinced Facebook are claiming this generally; the case is much much wider than this one issue.
EDIT: I see "data portability" is a site dedicated to open/portable standards - rather than a service which was my initial reaction. In which case the title has a little more merit.
Essentially, the criminal statute prohibits unauthorized access to user data on a network (among other things), a precedent exists by which ConnectU was found to have violated the criminal statute for having scraped user emails (and spammed the users) without their permission and in violation of Facebook's terms of service, and Facebook is now claiming that Power Ventures is similarly violating the statute by accessing user data in violation of its TOS - EFF (filing its brief as a "friend of the court" and not as a party to the dispute) claims that this is absurd given that users own their own information and therefore it cannot be a crime for Power to access it with their permission (even if it is a done in violation of the TOS).
FB's position on this does in fact appear to be absurd, and I would strongly suspect the claim will be bounced from the case.