I wholeheartedly agree!

You have a definite way with words.

Cheers!

I was under the impression that these proposed links were to download the torrent file directly. And, this had me scratching my head about TPB, as I know these guys aren’t dumb. Since all they’re doing is sending you to the torrent description page (where you would then download the .torr, as always), there isn’t any need to be worried as a Facebook user.
I’m relieved in that revelation.

That may not stop the MAFIAA from targetting FB, though.
As long as it smells like trouble for them, they’ll probably be around.
But, at least I know if they do, it’ll just end up being another nail in their coffin.
: )

I would still caution anyone that FB is not as devoid of personal information as you would think. As I said, the 3rd-party tracking is a real concern, as it allows what FB has to be married with details that can be acquired from tracking your habits. (Naturally, I’m talking about real details someone would volunteer to other sites.) FB has its own e-mail built into the pages, as well as message “walls” – lots of conversations going on between people who don’t think it’ll be seen by anyone else. (The jury’s still out on that.)

My original concern was based on the fact that FB was designed to unite friends, and that in order to do this, you needed to register with your name and a legitimate e-mail address. (How else would someone that’s lost track of you, FIND YOU?)

As far as Zuckerberg being some potential “IP rebel”, I can’t really comment on that. I can say, he’s first driven toward any idea where there’s a potential for profit. I don’t think it matters to him too much what rules he breaks or how many people get mad, as long as he gets away with it. Did he “steal” the FB idea from his college friends? Who really knows. ; )

stw

Quoting from the Wikipedia article on facebook:

“Zuckerberg was charged by the administration with breach of security, violating copyrights and violating individual privacy and faced expulsion, but ultimately the charges were dropped.[12] ”

Okay, so the first thing we know is that Zuckerberg played “fast and loose” as regards the current IP laws. (I dunno, but to my way of thinking, this is potentially a good thing in regard to the torrent thing.)

“Facebook was then opened on September 26, 2006 to everyone of ages 13 and older with a valid e-mail address.”
So much for your concern about “real names” etc. — you really honestly believe that at least a fairly-significant proportion of facebook users haven’t dedicated an email address which they use specifically for signing up for stuff?
The notion that email addresses, IP addresses, and street addresses are equivalent might make sense to the RIAA or IFPI or their goons, but it’s simply not true, as we both know.

“The website is free to users, but generates revenue from advertising. This includes banner ads.[42] Users can create profiles including photos and lists of personal interests, exchange private or public messages, and join groups of friends.[43] By default, the viewing of detailed profile data is restricted to users from the same network and “reasonable community limitations.”

So, uh, the easiest precaution you can take in regard to adding torrent links to facebook would seem to be:
1. Dedicate an email address specifically to signing up for sites. (Something pretty much everybody does anyway.)
2. Since the site is ad-supported, there’s no “premium” version which requires “real world” data such as Credit card info, street addresses, etc., so that’s another strike against your concerns.
3. As KD-whosis pointed out, the links go to the info page on TPB, and — as was covered in the TPB trial — TPB itself has nothing to do with the actual “transfer” other than supplying the initial torrent file etc.

Add to this the fact that Zuckerberg STARTED the precursor to facebook by doing things that went against the IP-fascism of our time (and people are still suing him over it), and the chances of him playing nice with the RIAA/MPAA are pretty slim.

I think your concerns would be far more justified if the torrent links were only available via a “premium subscription” or something, but if it’s just freely-viewable links in a profile page that don’t even actually START the download, well….it’s just not as concernful, for the reasons I mentioned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook