Yeah, I'm familiar with that concept too and actually nearly filed an action against a competitor for it (wish I had, as it was clear cut).
But, my understanding of the standard for that particular tort would make it difficult for FB to prevail. In particular, the two tests that might be hardest to meet are that FB would have to show damages and they would have to show that the developer's conduct led to the breach.
I'm not sure that merely creating a tool qualifies, especially for the latter. The user is not coerced or compelled by the developer to violate his agreement with FB.
Again, IANAL. Just thinking back to legal counsel I've received (and quite possibly misapplied here). Definitely plenty of gray area in civil law.
EDIT: Thinking back to this specific extension, it may be even harder for FB to prevail on tortious interference. The tool merely automates actions that FB makes freely available to its users. And to some extent all access to a site is "programmatic". So, I wonder how this compares to ad blockers or even other built-in browser capabilities that could "programmatically" alter the user experience when accessing FB's site. Really interesting.
But, my understanding of the standard for that particular tort would make it difficult for FB to prevail. In particular, the two tests that might be hardest to meet are that FB would have to show damages and they would have to show that the developer's conduct led to the breach.
I'm not sure that merely creating a tool qualifies, especially for the latter. The user is not coerced or compelled by the developer to violate his agreement with FB.
Again, IANAL. Just thinking back to legal counsel I've received (and quite possibly misapplied here). Definitely plenty of gray area in civil law.
EDIT: Thinking back to this specific extension, it may be even harder for FB to prevail on tortious interference. The tool merely automates actions that FB makes freely available to its users. And to some extent all access to a site is "programmatic". So, I wonder how this compares to ad blockers or even other built-in browser capabilities that could "programmatically" alter the user experience when accessing FB's site. Really interesting.