I have never seen a group like the bloggers of the Internet to jump on something with both feet and ride it like a wave - whether or not the water’s deep enough to hold up their surfboard.  First I got a post that sent me (just like everyone else) reeling - so I checked it out.  It turns out, while you should always read your end user agreements if you are paranoid about your content - you should also read them before you accuse someone of becoming BIG BROTHER.

Google Chromes End User Agreement does NOT hand over your copyright or ownership of any content to Google.  It does grant them “non-exclusive rights” to reproduce and use content uploaded through their services (we’ll get to what that means in a second) but only for this particular use:  ”This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services”

They aren’t going to publish your golden words in a book, or sell your secrets to foreign nations - or at least, if they do, they aren’t doing it legally.  They also aren’t talking about every bit of content you upload using Google Chrome - which is an APPLICATION.   Their EULA specifically refers to Google Services.  You would know these as Gmail, Blogger (I think they own that now), Google Search (yep that little box you type searches into and the history it leaves behind)  - Google Documents, widgets, programs and other assorted SERVICES.  

So, to recap, they are covering their asses so if they use something someone posts using a service they provide to promote or sell their browser, or their services, they have the right to do that.  That’s all they have the right to. 

Christ, people, they have every word you post cached and archived and indexed.  You write articles, posts, and volumes about how to increase your searchability for Google, and I’ll answer that in a short sentence.  Give them more of your stuff.  That’s how it works - they have it all anyway - anyone who believes their Gmail account is private should think about where the mail is stored - whose server it resides upon - and then about all the IT folks they know and realize their data is as secure as the people maintaining it. 

In short, while they sure could have worded it to cause less of a tizzy, Google isn’t asking for much of anything.  Also, consider that they claim Chrome will be open source.  If this is so, then the requirements of BEING open source would trump this EULA every time were anyone foolish enough to try defending it in court.

Get on with playing with the new browser.  It’s fast and clean, but it has some bugs, and if we want it to work better, we should find all those sites that are broken and report them.  They will use that information (non-exclusively) to make your Internet experience better.

I should add that I believe Google has WAY too much info they should not have, and that if you were to creatively gather things you could probably create top secret documents by picking and choosing from all that is indexed.  I don’t know that there is a way to prevent that and provide the services that they provide…so we live with it.  Only time will tell if we were foolish from the start.

You can’t have a search engine and keep all the avaialable data secret.

DNW

Technorati Tags: Chrome, Chromium, copyright, Eula, Google Chrome, non-exclusive, open source

Posted on 09/3/08, 11:23 AM
in: IT
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