200 replies to this topic

[Steve Sensible]

[David Meadows]

Do you honestly think they're going to have someone sifting through billions and billions of peoples' documents looking for something they can maybe make a few bucks off?

They don't need to sift through billions of documents. They only need to look through Alan Moore's account

So explain to me what "create derivative works" actually means, Mr Bear.

[Ogul]

I get that. But "create derivative works"? That means that if you upload your "Watchman" script, you've given them permission to create "Before Watchmen".

Yes, but presumably there's a legal reason they need that. I imagine it applies to something like if you upload a video, and use their tools to edit it in some way, then from a technical standpoint, the resultant file is a "derivative work" of the original, and it's their responsibility because it's on their servers as you do this. Like I said, they definitely do need to have a "bill of rights" added to the EULA that would explicitly prevent them :Before Watchmen"ing on their own, but the rights they listed do seem to be necessary and not with sinister intent.

[David Meadows]

Yes, but presumably there's a legal reason they need that. I imagine it applies to something like if you upload a video, and use their tools to edit it in some way,

Why the hell would they want to edit your video???? They are supposed to be storing it, not changing it! This smells worse with every new argument

You'd have to be insane to sign that agreement.

[Steve Sensible]

I hope you have one of these David.



Google may steal your thoughts!

[Ogul]

Why the hell would they want to edit your video???? They are supposed to be storing it, not changing it! This smells worse with every new argument

My point isn't that a nameless Google employee will be sifting through your videos and narrating them, but that simple changes, like making thumbnails, for example, might be construed as "creating a derivative work," by some crafty lawyer. They need to cover their bases. But now they also need to cover ours.

[David Meadows]

Google may steal your thoughts!

Just remember this thread when you sign up for google's in-brain browsing implant in 2022. After it turns you into a mindless automaton, don't look up at me and shout "Save us!"... I'll just look down and whisper "No."

[Steve Sensible]

I'm pretty sure Google would want no part of what goes on in my head.

[garjones]

I'll hit the middle ground here. Steve is right, the terms and conditions are "cover our arse" things and they never take the place of the law. If Alan Moore did much computing and posted his Watchmen script there it already has a legal agreement with DC and even if he didn't the copyright laws would overrule whatever Google had to say.

These companies need to be taken to task a bit though on the legal disclaimers and privacy agreements, they are quite often (Facebook many times) and while the defence of "there's just too much out there for anyone to monitor" argument has some truth I have access to tools that do a lot of the work for you. To give some background there are many millions of tweets and status updates a day if not a billion, impossible to track without thousands of employees churning through them. However my employer paid to help develop a tool with a 3rd party that sweeps Twitter and Facebook, it shows anyone mentioning the company as a head floating around the screen. The more followers they have, the bigger the head, if the picture has a red border if they are slagging off the company, blue if it's just a neutral comment and green if it's a compliment.

The application is benign, they want to go in and try to help the reds to fix their complaint, thank the greens for their support, general good customer service. I used to work with a Mossad developed call recording service that was designed to snoop but used to help training and quality (it could track key words and even emotions but we never used that, I'm sure they did on the West Bank). However the likes of the News of the World or the banks misselling shows a company can't be trusted to always be positive in their aims and we need to take care and check what is there in the terms would pass a worst case scenario too.

[Arjan Dirkse]

Google Drive would be great if Google didn't claim ownership of whatever you upload to it. I'll stick with Drop Box for now too.

Reminds me of this:



It's Google's equivalent of wanting you to give them permission to sew your mouth to another user's ass.

WTF Google...

[Lucian Von Dooom]

I'm fairly sure that Google would never actually steal someone's stuff, or at least I hope not. I just find the legalese amusing. However the bit about how they can still use it even after you no longer use the service bothers me. That part seems a lot less like "covering their arse".

[garjones]

I'm fairly sure that Google would never actually steal someone's stuff, or at least I hope not. I just find the legalese amusing. However the bit about how they can still use it even after you no longer use the service bothers me. That part seems a lot less like "covering their arse".

Yeah but it won't last, it's in breach of all European data protection laws (and others like Canada and Australia I believe), which is the same reason Facebook got forced to delete accounts on request when they were trying to avoid it. You must have a valid and current business reason and consent to store personal data.

Google can't even get away with saying the data is in the US as the guy who sits next to me at work has spent the last 2 years working on providing global data warehouses for them. It's in Ireland and Australia and all over.

[Christian U]

That's good to know.

Either way, my google drive is not ready yet. Grm.

[Mike]

Mine's working now.

It's lovely and all, but what does it do that Dropbox didn't?

[garjones]

Mine's working now.

It's lovely and all, but what does it do that Dropbox didn't?

Nothing I don't think (along with another dozen free cloud storage offerings), just Google branding and the attention that goes with it. They usually do a nice simple interface too but I don't know as I can't get in yet.

[Christian U]

Yeah, I think as with most of this stuff, having a google equivalent mostly makes sense when you've also got a google mail account, so you can easily access it all. Me, I'm going to use it for different things than with dropbox, where I've got my private files, but didn't have enough room for my work-related folders.

[Steve Sensible]

Does Dropbox integrate into Explorer in the same way as Google Drive? For me it just appears in my list of drives now, whereas Dropbox doesn't. Unless there's an equivalent Dropbox extension that I don't have installed.

[Mike]

Dunno about Explorer, but it integrated into my Finder from the get-go.

Anyway, they're both great, though my 'never have to remember a password ever' solution uses Dropbox as an integral part of its function, so I probably won't be abandoning Dropbox quite yet.

[Christian U]

Does Dropbox integrate into Explorer in the same way as Google Drive? For me it just appears in my list of drives now, whereas Dropbox doesn't. Unless there's an equivalent Dropbox extension that I don't have installed.

That is pretty neat.

[jamon g]

me uses google docs all the time for work and it's handy. especially writing invoices to pdf's.