With the announcement of a new "viral" campaign donations tool, MySpace reserves the right to track the funds raised by presidential candidates using the gadget. Big deal or no big thing?

On the one hand, MySpace is a free service, and presidential campaigns can simply choose not to deal with them. That said, high-profile presidential campaigns not using MySpace to build vibrant online followings open themselves up to stories like "Smith Fails the MySpace Test." The situation the '08 campaigns find themselves in points to a certain truth -- "free" sites like MySpace and Facebook really aren't free. We just pay for them in a currency other than money. For presidential campaigns, they may pay for MySpace buzz and functionality by ceding to News Corporation the data behind their fundraising efforts. Social-networking sites like MySpace and YouTube have made themselves valuable partners to campaigns in the 2008 process. Maybe it's not so surprising that they might want something in return.