My view is: if it's something I'm allowed to do manually, then I should be allowed to use a tool to help me do it faster.

I don't agree with FB blocking Scoble, nor do I agree that Gmail should block FB.

Technically speaking, the TOS allows Google to kick any user who gets their stuff from Facebook This would be bad for Facebook, but it would be bad for Google and Yahoo, too: they would anger their users by frustrating a reasonable use of their service. Those users might just take their email and leave.

Is the same true for Facebook? If you get kicked from Facebook, where else will you go? You might say "I'll just take my friends and start my own Facebook!", but you won't be able to unless you somehow got around their monitoring. (Not a difficult problem in principal, but tough for the non-savvy.)

Would a service that exports Facebook contacts be illegal? What about a piece of software that does so?

Absolutely, the line between "manual" and "automated" actions is blurred. For example, is entering text using some voice recognition software automated or manual? They could as well demand in their TOS not to look over your shoulder when entering text in their form.

Many of those terms we agree to in the digital world are nonsensical.

My opinion: I'm a live by the sword, die by the sword kind of guy. I don't really find anything wrong with an option to mine other sources for data, and I'm sure I could find some way to justify (to myself) locking out mining from a site of my own, but there's no way I'd do both.

I'm not even sure it makes business sense (most unethical practices don't in the long run). While a massive shift away from Facebook could happen (ala Friendster), Facebook would do far better trying to raise their value to users and solidify their status as a platform to prevent that from happening.

They could raise their value to users by making the user's own data available to him in handy formats. It'd be really nice to import all my contact's birthdays into my Google Calendar for instance...

But then again, they might construe that to mean I'd visit less often. (The reality is that I'd just notice more birthdays.)

All this talk about the Terms Of Service agreements misses the fundamental point that it's what people CAN DO (technologically) and what they WILL DO (including breaking rules) that determines how this will unfold...not whatever is written in small print in the Facebook TOS.

I'm confused. Is FB stopping Scoble from exporting data that he put into FB or is it stopping him from exporting data that FB collected itself?

Yes, it's likely to be a mix. However, if I gave FB some data, I'd be annoyed if FB let Scoble export it without my permission.

The "get your contacts from external sites" script may be a violation of the other TOSs, but more importantly it's a violation of your contacts' privacy. They didn't say you could give their info to facebook.

One difference might be: FB snarfing data from Google involves a few hits on the Google site. Spidering a site rapidly involves a lot more traffic. Not that FB can't handle it, but it's a little different.

The obvious reasoning behind this policy is to prevent spam.

But of course you only have access to your friends' email addresses.