One of the things that caught my eye in all of the fallout and discussion from the Obama MySpace controversy was this line from Micah's original TechPresident article:

"And indeed, for MySpace this probably will never be a problem again"

And for future and current politicians, it probably won't be. But it got me thinking about how the boundaries of identity are now in flux in this evolving online world. While as the Obama case was relatively clear-cut from an identity point of view, ie, the real Obama had a rightful claim to his name.

But MySpace has built an entire lucrative industry around marketing its social network to feature and promote profiles of upcoming movies, popular television shows, and various fake profiles of fictional characters.

Just as there are unofficial Obama profiles there are thousands, if not millions, of unofficial profiles and groups dedicated to television characters, movies, and TV shows on MySpace. And each of them blurs the line that line that delineates reality a little more.

There's hardly a television show or movie show out there these days that doesn't have an official MySpace page. But just as in politics, the official pages are often the least exciting entries into the social networking world. Like anywhere else, excelling requires a commitment to original content and interaction that's essential even in a fake profile.

Here's a great example. Right now, I can't get any of the graphics on the official MySpace page for the NBC TV show "The Office" to load.

But many of the actors/characters from the hit TV show have their own popular MySpace pages. Why did I the term actors/characters? Because many of their MySpace pages are set up in the names of their characters but feature photos, updates, and information about the actor or actress that plays the fictional character. And to confuse things even more, the creators of "The Office" often made the character's first name the same as the actors, like Angela Kinsey, who plays Angela Martin in "The Office."

For example, actress Jenna Fischer plays Pam Beesley on "The Office" and uses her MySpace blog to update the world on the life of Jenna and to give sneak peeks behind the scenes of "The Office." But Pam/Jenna's MySpace url is MySpace.com/pambeesley. So one day, when The Office inevitably comes to an end, what will become of the /pambeesley profile and her 102,471 MySpace friends?

Who owns those? NBC? GE? The creators of The Office and the fictional character of Pam Beesley? Jenna Fischer, the actress who plays Pam and has provided much of the original content which helped make her so popular in the MySpace world?

What happens when NBC demands that actress Jenna put up promos for "Deal or No Deal" on her Office Pam MySpace page and she refuses? Or if it became embarrassing to Fox that an unofficial Family Guy page has far more friends then the official one and they move to have it shut down?

I know it sounds a bit absurd. But the old media order is scrambling to keep their intellectual property within their control in the new media world. Inevitably these forces will come to clash...even if they're some of their biggest fans. We've seen it before on the internet with music, with copyrighted video, internet radio, and even presidential candidates.

And so now, oddly enough, we find ourselves asking this question: who controls the rights to a fake profile of a fictional character?

I'm not sure where all of this will end up, but I do know that we've already started down this road, and we're heading towards this sooner then you might think. That is, if we haven't already.

(Disclaimer: The author's MySpace page was originally acquired in college because a login was required to look at pictures of cute girls. It is currently lame because of the author's laziness and inability to make MySpace not look ugly, which explains why he only has 2 friends, a former roommate and the movie Transformers. Somehow MySpace Tom, who is automatically friends with everyone on MySpace, is not a friend. However, the author is proud that the page plays the theme song from "The Office.")