Friendster Wins Patent for Social Networking. What will become of the MySpace cult?

Friendster said Thursday that it has received a patent that covers online social networks, one the company had applied for long before its decline and recent recapitalization.

The U.S. patent, which was awarded June 27, is extremely general, and would seem to cover the activities of many other sites, especially those like LinkedIn that allow people to connect within a certain number of degrees of separation.

So this affects MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn - unequivocally. What will they have to do? Pony up some big time dough? Meethinks...