Google has some really great products on the market, so when I heard about their new web browser Chrome, I was interested in trying it. Until I had a look at the terms and conditions I have to agree to before I can use it. One part says:

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.

I’m no lawyer, but I think I’m competent enough to decipher that. If I write an article and post it to my website using the browser Chrome, I’ve just given Google a license to use and sell my content anywhere they want forever. I can’t undo the permission they now have to do whatever they want with my intellectual property.

No thanks, Google and Chrome. I’ll just stick with Firefox. They’re not looking to use my content to profit without compensating me or giving up any rights to my content.

UPDATE 1: Matt Cutts at Google is telling people that the agreement doesn’t really say what it says. He writes:

I knew that Google didn’t want to assert rights on what people did using Google Chrome, so I asked the Chrome team and Google lawyers for their reaction or to clarify (probably several other people pinged them too). Here’s what I heard back from Rebecca Ward, the Senior Product Counsel for Google Chrome:

“In order to keep things simple for our users, we try to use the same set of legal terms (our Universal Terms of Service) for many of our products. Sometimes, as in the case of Google Chrome, this means that the legal terms for a specific product may include terms that don’t apply well to the use of that product. We 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.”

I hope that addresses the concerns that I’ve seen on a few places around the web. I appreciate that people pored through the Chrome license to find anything that looked unclear and then raised concerns so that Google could respond.

The problem that I see is that whether or not Google “wants” to assert rights to material put on the internet using their browser Chrome, the agreement says they do. I don’t really care that Google has this idea that all their products should have the same set of legal terms. It says what it says, and with the current licensing, I’m not touching Chrome. I hope they work quickly to implement this change, and to do it in a way that is workable for users.

And while Google is at it, I think they might consider changing the terms of use for other products. I’m now bothered by what this clause means for my Gmail account.

UPDATE 2: The license now says:

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.

Good work Google!