Unless I misread the Terms of Service completely, Facebook does indeed claim a license to all the content you link to, not just what you upload onto their servers. Legally the TOS makes no distinction between linked and uploaded content. I’m not a lawyer, but this seems pretty clear to me. The relevant clause from the TOS:

“User Content” means any photos, text, link, audio, video, designs, ads and anything else that you Post on or through the Facebook Service. “Post” means to upload, post, transmit, share, store, link to or otherwise make available on or through the Facebook Service.”

This is a very broad definition of “post,” the operative phrase being “link to or otherwise make available on or through” Facebook.

It goes on, “You represent and warrant that you have all rights and permissions to grant the foregoing licenses,” i.e., these terms would seem, at least technically, to prohibit you from posting anything over which you do not hold the rights. (And by “posting” I mean the sense defined in the TOS, i.e., including posting a link.) To me, this seems unenforceable. It also seems to run counter to the apparent purpose for which the “Share this on Facebook” feature was created, in the sense that it actually discourages anyone from “sharing” anything they don’t own (such as someone else’s photo, or a news article, or a YouTube video).

And finally, in my view, Zuckerberg’s post amounts to “trust us and don’t bother reading the fine print.” I’m dubious, frankly. The language of the TOS may be “overly formal” but it is still a binding contract; Zuckerberg’s blog post doesn’t change that.

Facebook’s TOS is at http://www.facebook.com/terms.php.

I’m angry, and I’m also angry that I now can’t go and delete my RSS feeds (that it says only I was signed up to anyway on this particular app).