Well well, google released a new browser. I just downloaded and installed it and was blown away by the speed of the thing. My Yahoo mail loaded so much faster than in my usual browser (Firefox 3.0.1), and general performance seems to be better than FF. All good, until I was looking around online and spotted in the comments section of the Guardian article about Chrome that the Chrome EULA (of which I of course read point 1.1 then skipped the rest) includes this section:
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.
Nice: anything I look at or post in Chrome belongs to google. Looking around on the net I found another post about the Chrome EULA, which has several useful links, and is written by a lawyer who claims that this effectively rules out the browser’s use by a whole slew of people. And even if Google says “Oh don’t worry about that,” should we worry about it? If it’s not needed, don’t put it in the EULA.
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I’ve been looking at it, and it’s not quite as “bad” as it is made out to be: “sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services” Pretty much, anything that they feel like, they can take and show as a “look at how awesome our product is”, it’s intent is so that they can’t be sued for any screenshots of Chrome in action, but I think their choice of wording is too broad.
Be careful to not miss: 9.4 Other than the limited license set forth in Section 11, Google acknowledges and agrees that it obtains no right, title or interest from you (or your licensors) under these Terms in or to any Content that you submit, post, transmit or display on, or through, the Services, including any intellectual property rights which subsist in that Content (whether those rights happen to be registered or not, and wherever in the world those rights may exist). Unless you have agreed otherwise in writing with Google, you agree that you are responsible for protecting and enforcing those rights and that Google has no obligation to do so on your behalf.
And they’ve now updated point 11:
So I guess they decided that there was a problem! At least they fixed it swiftly.
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