Scoble violated a contract with a service provider and had his service interrupted. Someone call the New York Times!

I love seeing nerds get their various underwears in a bunch over stuff like this. Facebook has some rules, one of them is that you can’t scrape their pages. Scoble broke the rule (and stupidly admits to it on his blog) and now he’s throwing a tantrum because he has to face the consequences.

Listen, I want companies to give us easy access to our data as much as the next guy, but there’s a right way to do it and a wrong way. This isn’t women’s suffrage. It’s not segregation. It’s not the holocaust.

This isn’t an issue that’s so important and vital that it must be fixed immediately and through any means necessary.

This is just a bunch of adults acting like children, and using big, loaded words to defend themselves.

Here are some facts:

1. Scoble agreed to the TOS when he signed up for facebook.
2. He’s savvy. He knows that such contracts exist, how to find them, and what they usually contain.
3. He knowingly and intentionally broke the rules, fully aware of what the consequences could be.
4. He got caught, and now hopes to escape taking responsibility for his actions by making a big stink on his blog.

I don’t like the business practice of locking up user-generated content. I want it to stop. But the right way to do that is by not patronizing the companies who lock you in. Don’t use Facebook, don’t use Netflix, don’t use … well … 95% of web services out there today.

Facebook is a business that is offering you their services for zero dollars, in exchange for your agreement with a few terms and conditions. That’s the arrangement that all facebook members have agreed to, and they need to abide by it or take their ball and go home.

If Scoble stopped paying his electric bill, would all of the same people be up in arms when his lights got shut off?

It’s the same thing.