I'm going to quote the letter which Joe Anthony sent to Micah at TechPresident, I can think of no better way to get at the heart of the issue.  The letter in entirety can be found at:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseac tion=blog.view&friendID=159248288&am p;blogID=259712152&Mytoken=37EF20AF- 7BF8-4BCA-ADAA95410F5676A081865610

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For two years, Joe Anthony really believed in Barack Obama's leadership, so much so that he started a very successful MySpace group to support Barack Obama's entry into the presidential race.  But, now the presidential race is intensifying and Barack Obama needs to integrate that MySpace.com/BarackObama group that bears his name more closely into his campaign.  DailyKos  Certainly, Barack Obama must take full responsibility for the group's message, its campaign finances and legal affairs.  The question is, "How much money should Joe Anthony now get paid for his volunteer work?" 

The MySpace group was communicating with 140,000 Obama supporters, many of whom may not have completely understood that Barack Obama himself did not have control over the site or its message.  At any point, a minor and unintentional error by Joe Anthony could have created a major embarrassment and sent the entire campaign into a tailspin. To run that risk would be simply foolhardy.  

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The latest PR disaster for a democratic candidate comes from the Barak Obama camp.  The grassroots myspace site for Obama has been wrested away from its creator and given to the official campaign.  Details are available in cyberspace for those who haven't been following.  A few thoughts beyond the fold:

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SO let me get this straight:

This guy ANthony has a my space page with the BarackObama name.. thats IT! something that takes 2 minutes to do.. then people want to be BarackObama's friend so he accepts them by clicking accept 160,000 times over a few months

THAT IS IT FOLKS!

and for that he should be paid?

its a standard myspace program...he did not web design or anything of the sort

he reminds me of trippi .. when dean started losing trippi bailed out slamming the door... then he thought the deaniacs would follow him.. no one did

this guy Anthony has a lot of nerve trying to trade on someone else's name and make money of it

i don't understand how anyone could think obama is not entitled to his myspace domain or why he should have to pay anthony one dime..

myspace is a community not a money making venture..

i just signed up as obama's friend for the first time..

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(cross-posted at Daily Kos)

The blogosphere is abuzz today with the news that Barack Obama's presidential campaign took control of its MySpace domain after initially working with the previous holder of that user ID, Joe Anthony, for no cost. Here's a sampling of the reaction at some of the major liberal blogs. After turning down what they viewed as the high cost - $39,000 - for the rights to control of the site, the Obama campaign, working with MySpace, was granted full control without having to pay Anthony.

The general reaction from the leading blogs - Daily Kos, MyDD, and Eschaton - seem to indicate that they believe the Obama campaign screwed Anthony over big time. I do agree that the Obama campaign could have handled the issue more tactfully. That being said, the blogosphere criticism seems to show an underlying lack of understanding about the functioning of social networking websites such as MySpace. Follow me beneath the fold for analysis...

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