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They're deciding how to approach it - but realistically, one can back up already. It is simply inconvenient.

As far as Scoble's episode - peh. He said in the comments of the article he referenced:

Roo: no. That’s part of my job to see how good their terms of service are, and how well enforced they are. Also, to point out when terms of service suck. In Facebook’s case its competitors don’t have the same stupid TOS and let you take your social graph with you wherever you want. In fact, its competitors don’t have a lame technical limitation which limits me to 5,000 friends either. But that’s another topic.

Part of his 'job'? Who does he work for? He's more shadow than light anyway.

Personally, I think scraping has its uses. However, the contexts are pretty different between objects inworld and Scoble scratch and sniffing his social network. It also begs the question as to whether the people he may have been scraping were aware that he was doing so - that's a blatant privacy issue. And lo! as Alan Bamboo just pointed out, Facebook adds privacy controls, plans chat feature.

Some legal experts have actually connected privacy law and copyright, in some contexts. Quoting without permission, for example, could be grounds for copyright infringement.

Now - the Second Life walls are coming down, I think, but it isn't an easy process because a lot has to be considered other than the technical aspects. Copyright is a big deal. The system that allows that exportation and even importation has to be planned properly... and it will still get broken. But then it will be mended... point is, it isn't as easy as just a technical solution.

Second Life Consultant