Google Chrome assumes ownership of your soul
Every time Google drops a new product, the internets go wild with excitement, speculation, and general madness. All of this hoopla is generally for good reason, as the boys down in Mountain View have a history of rolling out revolutionary services that quickly gain ubiquitous presence in our everyday lives. The recent introduction of the Chrome browser was no exception to this rule, though if the EULA is any indication of Google’s plans, we might want to hold off on wide-scale adoption. According to several clauses in the user license, Google assumes ownership of anything you post, publish, and/or create while using their new browser. Sound fishy? Check this out: “By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.” We can’t think of any reason why this would be a necessary step for Google to take, and its inclusion raises a serious red flag about the company’s intentions, especially considering their well known “Don’t be evil” motto. Peep the sections after the jump courtesy of the fine folks over at Gizmodo, and sound off here in the comments.
UPDATE: Google has responded to this one in record time. Noting the general level of scrutiny and dis-satisfaction around the web in regards to their invasive privacy policy, the company states that they ”are working quickly to remove language from Section 11 of the current Google Chrome terms of service. This change will apply retroactively to all users who have downloaded Google Chrome.” Kudos, Google!
Thanks, Jose!
11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.
11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.
11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.
11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.
Yea I guess whenever Google does something it’s fine as long as it’s not Microsoft. I’m glad I did not bother even downloading it. The man rips me of enough in real life. I don’t need my thoughts and ideas abused as well.
Matt S is right–it says in the clause that you retain ownership of your work’s copyright, so they can’t sell it to someone and “not give you a penny” as one poster said. What they are helping themselves to is a free-for-all license, which means they don’t own your work, but they can make as many copies of it as they want, translate it, distribute it, etc, however the heck they want to without paying you for it. Normally, you would have to pay a royalty if you wanted to use a piece of someone’s book/etc for a non-academic/non-educational purpose (that’s allowed under the “Fair Use” clause of Copyright Law). Obviously, Google’s gonna be using the stuff we submit for its own profits, not education, so that’s why they gave themselves this license, I guess. I don’t think they’ll steal the novel manuscript you e-mail yourself via Gmail, but it looks like they’re reserving the right to stick a chunk of it up on Google books or whatever if they feel like it and are saying they won’t pay you for it.
I love my opera browser!
Looks like they admitted to their mistake and got rid of the offending clause in the EULA.
Besides, the clause was a bit of a non-starter: Since Chrome was released under an open-source license, there was nothing stopping someone from taking it and re-releasing without the EULA attached.
^ Golly-Gee, where oh where did Cy get his legal credentials? Guatemala State? _rolling eyes_
even though its been reversed, the real action behind this is, you, as a typical web surfer, have become nothing more than an interactive googlebot.
Google Chrome is really fast!
Now I can sort 200,000 records inside of Browser (Chrome) just in 1 sec. (Faster than Microsoft Excel):
http://www.ardentedge.com/ex_if.htm
The wording in Chrome is more than it appears to be. “By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services…”
Only a fool with nothing to lose would agree to something as pervasive as that… or happened to be ignorant of it.
Be careful, the updated language will probably include a “dumbed down” version, so it does not look so bad AND a clause allowing google to make changes whenever they want… and require you to go “check google’s licensing for the changes periodically.”
There is really 1 GIANT reason I have no plans to use GOOGLE as a web browser…
ADVERTISEMENTS… the only way a website can stop me from blocking all their stupid advertisements is by owning the browser and preventing such changes.
I have no intention of letting google do that, not will I allow them any license for web content. If they want it, they can pay for it like anyone else.
PS… I switched my broswer’s home location from google to http://WWW.ALTAVISTA.COM
JUST to show those guys they don’t own me.
Dude the CEO of Google went to Bilderberg. Google IS evil