Apparently Google’s Chrome browser which was released on Tuesday is a good reminder for us to actually read Terms of Service documents and EULAs. Not two hours after its release, bloggers checking out the new browser reported an interesting find in Chrome’s license document. The original text went something like this:

11. Content licence from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights that you already hold in Content that 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 licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. This licence 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.

What is implied here is that any and all content that you create and upload via the Chrome browser instantly become property of Google Inc. This includes email, web-chat text, pictures you upload, etc. Florida lawyer David Loschiavo said in his blog:

"In other words, by posting anything (via Chrome) to your blog(s), any forum, video site, MySpace, iTunes, or any other site that might happen to be supporting you, Google can use your work without paying you a dime (...) It applies to everything you pass through Chrome. Google can take your submitted content and edit and reuse it all they want, as long as they do so in connection with Chrome."

Rebecca Ward, senior product counselor for Chrome made a statement yesterday saying that they borrowed legal language from other products, "in order to keep things simple for our users," and 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”.

The initial text also specified that Google are permitted 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."

As of 2 am Pacific Time yesterday, section 11 of the EULA had changed to read:

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.

Was this incident an honest mistake as their mea culpa yesterday states, or were Google trying to get users to give away, as Steven W. Teppler – NY lawyer – put it, “(Intellectual Property), to an organization certainly not in need of charitable donations”?