Facebook and seven major online companies have endorsed an alternative online piracy bill that they believe would keep the Internet open and foster innovation.

The Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade, or OPEN Act, is co-sponsored by Republican Representative Darrell Issa of California and Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon. 

The legislation is an alternative to the Stop Online Piracy Act, and its counterpart, Protect IP.

Facebook and other oppenents of SOPA claim it would restrict the Internet in ways that would not only result in censorship but also create information monopolies.

Web firms oppose the provisions in SOPA that would require search engines and other sites to delete links to sites deemed to be “dedicated” to copyright infringement.

The online community argues such a requirement would result in censorship of the web, according to the political newspaper, The Hill.

The OPEN Act has the backing of Facebook and such Internet heavyweights as AOL, eBay, Google, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo and Zynga, which together co-signed a letter to legislators late last month.

The letter states that the OPEN Act’s ”approach targets foreign rogue sites without inflicting collateral damage on legitimate, law-abiding U.S. Internet companies by bringing well-established international trade remedies to bear on this problem.”

In a news release introducing the OPEN Act, Senator Wyden and Representative Issa claim that the proposal “fights the unauthorized sale of digital goods and protects Internet security, commerce and speech.”

The graphic below, taken from the OPEN Act’s website, compares the major piracy bills.

Last year, MailChimp added support for the Facebook like button in email platforms. WiseStamp is taking the next step, releasing an app that allows users to promote Facebook pages in the signature files of their emails.

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Facebook’s place at the top of the standings when it comes to online display advertising revenue would seem to be fairly secure, since it will reportedly overtake Yahoo this year, if it hasn’t happened already.

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Hey, did you hear? Google has a new social network!
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After the announcement in February that Rockville, Md.-based hyperlocal news site Rockville Centra would become a hyperlocal site without a site, moving all of its content to its Facebook page, founder and publisher Brad Rourke offers eight lessons he and his team have learned from the move.
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A writer for AOL News is suing Facebook for a whopping $1 for labeling him a spammer.

And he’s put out a press release to prove it.

Of course, the press release and the lawsuit it trumpets draws attention to blogger David Fagin’s AOL column as much as his beef Facebook.

That will send more traffic his way. Good for him! You go, guy!

Given the state of things at AOL News after the acquisition of Huffington Post, Fagin’s publicity stunt is brilliant if it helps ensure that he continues to get paid for his writing.

Long after Fagin first kvetched about it in his column, he continues to see error messages like the two shown to the right.

They make him mad and he’s just not going to take it anymore! So here’s the text of the press release he put out on PR Newswire today:

There aren’t too many words that exist in Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary that conjure up more offensive and sleazy images than that of a “spammer.” It’s pretty much the equivalent of an online pickpocket or con artist.

Nonetheless, the first time David Fagin saw he was being blocked from sending friend requests on Facebook, as well as being labeled a spammer, he didn’t think much of it. Then, when it happened again, and he was informed that he was in danger of having his account deleted, he tried to resolve it by reaching out to Facebook’s support department – only to discover they don’t have one.

“Some might say ‘What’s the big deal? It’s just a stupid social networking site,’” says Fagin. “But, when you’re talking about arguably the biggest online presence the world has ever seen, one that’s currently worth more than Microsoft, and there’s no way to reach a live human being, that might be something for the FTC and/or congress to at least think about.”

“It’s not just the support issue, either,” Fagin goes on to say. “Facebook is actively contradicting their own policies. On one hand, they tell you not to ‘friend’ anyone you don’t already know. On the other, the site constantly bombards you with names of people that Facebook themselves suggests you should ‘friend’, as you already have multiple friends in common. This also runs in direct contradiction with the spammer label. If everyone on the site is only supposed to be friends with people they know, then everyone is a spammer. As, no one knows two thousand six hundred and eighty-eight people, personally. Not evenDonald Trump. Not to mention, Facebook wants you to connect with as many people as possible. That’s how they get their advertisers salivating; by everyone ‘sharing’ and ‘liking’ their favorite things. Only being connected to thirty-six people doesn’t really do much for the folks at Coke or Starbucks. But a thousand connections, who can all spider off to another thousand, now that’s viral marketing at its finest.”

Upon discovering Facebook did not provide legitimate help or support of any kind to provide resolution in the matter, Fagin –who writes a column for AOL News- decided to blog about it (The piece can be seen here; Facebook article). He states, “To me, being threatened with banishment from Facebook in 2011 is the equivalent of having AT&T cancel your phone service in 1981. Where do you go to network with people in the modern age? Myspace? Please.”

The story received thousands of hits, made its way to AOL’s home page, and caught the attention of litigation attorney, Gillian Overland, esq., of Overland Law & Mediation in New York City.

“I read David’s article and completely agreed. The fact that you’re dealing with a company as large and as powerful as Facebook, and their only means of public intercourse is a run-of-the-mill FAQ page?  This needs to be fixed.”

But how do you fix a problem when there’s no one there to fix it?

“Unfortunately, it took a murder to get regulators to force Craigslist to change their policies. In this case, it seems the only way to get Mark Zuckerberg and co. to respond to user complaints is with lawsuits,” Fagin says. He also adds, “Obviously suing the world’s biggest company for a dollar won’t hurt their pocketbook, but it might get the public debate going. And that’s the main objective here.”

President Barrack Obama and Facebook, plus numerous other companies, have formed the StartUp America Partnership to stimulate economic growth by fostering technology entrepreneurs.
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Facebook Chat’s integration with AOL’s AIM was not a one off event, rather a part of something bigger. As of today, Facebook Chat is now available “everywhere” (including desktop apps). In order to accomplish that Facebook has implemented the Jabber XMPP protocol, which is an open messaging protocol that is supported by most instant messaging softwares, including iChat, Pidgin, Adium, Miranda – and yes Google Talk also supports the same Jabber XMPP protocol.

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Yesterday evening Facebook and AOL announced a new partnership which involves the integration of Facebook Chat “into AIM, AOL’s instant messaging platform, and its new Lifestream feature”, according to Scott Harris of Mercury News. The announcement came on the same day that Google announced their new Buzz product which was aimed squarely at Facebook, integrating many of the company’s existing features.
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