Web 2.5 = Theft?

Is this the future (for now) of the internet? So many new “Web 2.0” services are coming about with a core service offering that amounts to little more than theft. I read about WikiFM today on the Listening Post and it has me concerned. The site marries two amazing services; Last.fm and Wikipedia. Yes, the concept is there: Why not enable the listener to read in great detail about each artist as they stream through the Last.fm player? While Last.fm does have bio pages and other tools that allow users to learn while they listen, Wikipedia often goes into much greater detail.

So what’s the problem? WikiFM doesn’t own the technology that it is using as a sole service offering to users. I use the term “theft” lightly in this post - yes WikFM may have permission to feed from each of the sites in question, although I doubt it. Should sites attempt to build value by using such practices?

Shyftr and Friendfeed are two more examples that are hot in the blogosphere lately. The former is a social RSS reader. It allows users to pull in feeds from any site and share them with other users. The Shyftr community can then share comments (locally), etc thus devaluing the original source of said content in my eyes. The latter, Friendfeed, scoops up feeds from a host of social networks and life-streaming sites, aggregating them in one place. Great concept but just like WikiFM, Friendfeed is building value by making use of time / energy / resources that it did not expend.

So I’ll ask again: Is this where the internet is going?