Aside from the PR value (there’s no such thing as bad publicity!) of Facebook once again stirring up controversy on their money losing service, this latest disturbance in the space-time-Internet continuum might have a hidden side effect.

I’d wager that the vast majority of “users generating content” couldn’t care less about the copyright status of their “works” because they have no expectation of ever profiting from them (that is even if they have even worried their pretty little heads with such concepts).

But what about those doing it for the money? Oh, they have reasons to be concerned alright. Andrew Baron, Paris Hilton, boycotting Facebook? Are Scoble and countless other celebrity bloggers going to be far behind?

You just wait, there will be some behind the scenes deals signed with these “commercial” content providers, protecting them from the onerous end-user licenses and somehow cutting Facebook in for a piece of the action (to the extent that there is any action that is).

Facebook is trying to implement the Internet as Microsoft would have had it years ago, with them as the central authority, ruling over all and charging an “Internet tax” that has been for so long postponed by the government to promote the technology.

I suppose if we don’t kill the goose that lays the golden eggs there is always the possibility it will commit suicide.

Or as Grandma’s around the world have been saying for generations, ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it!’.

This is only the beginning…