3...2....1... "Google Announces CDN for webmasters".

How long till Google cuts out the middle man servers and Googlebot and just hosts your website?

Read the TOS.

Read the TOS

Is there a link for TOS just for "Drive"?

...or is it the same homogenized policy they just rolled out for everything else?

Read the TOS.

I would if I could find it. Got a link?

[you do mean the G Drive TOS, right?]

You mean this Google TOS part?

Google Drive

"When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content."

...

This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service.

VERSUS

Dropbox

"By using our Services you provide us with information, files, and folders that you submit to Dropbox (together, "your stuff"). You retain full ownership to your stuff. We don’t claim any ownership to any of it. These Terms do not grant us any rights to your stuff or intellectual property except for the limited rights that are needed to run the Services, as explained below."

SkyDrive

"Except for material that we license to you, we don't claim ownership of the content you provide on the service. Your content remains your content. We also don't control, verify, or endorse the content that you and others make available on the service."

Unbelievable (almost) frontpage.

@frontpage - That's the new "one size fits all" TOS from Google. The way I read it, it's exactly what applies to Google Drive. Seems to me that SkyDrive, which is offering 25 Gig of free storage really seems like the best offer out there... they even have the ability to keep the data in sync.

Much like Google+1, this seems like yet another half-hearted attempt by the 'plex.

Thanks for pointing that out frontpage. I went with SkyDrive because of reading your post.

Thanks frontpage! count another person to go with skydrive.

Comes to think of it. I've had MS windows run and manage all my business and personal information since 1996. They've never let me down, and never dare come up with such absurd TOS (like the one that only big, greedy, unethical G can dish).

Google doesn't reveal who they 'work with' and This license continues even if you stop using our Services?!?

That's nuts.

Unless that TOS is updated I'll use DropDox.

Are any of those TOS in Gmail?

Thanks for pointing that out frontpage.

Thanks that is really good info, i am looking forward for Google drive however i am currently using Microsoft sky drive (25 GB space)

You're comparing Google's content distribution terms to DropBox's and SkyDrive's content ownership terms. Apples and oranges.

You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

...is what Google writes in the paragraph you've left out, which leads up to what you've quoted above.

Google's terms are inherently more complex because (a) they're the same for all Google services, and (b) the combination of Drive with other Google services allows you to do much more with the content you upload. If you don't provide Google with a license to host, distribute, modify and display your files, how are you going to use their services? I'd say that in trying to write in a more friendly tone, the DropBox terms are actually less clear and more ambiguous than Google's.

This license continues even if you stop using our Services?!? That's nuts.

It is, and it isn't, depending on their definition of stopping. If you stop logging on, then obviously the license continues; if you definitely close your account, then your data ought to be purged obviously, if not straight away (because that's probably tough to accomplish technically) then at least within a reasonable time.

Obviously it should state that.

Robzilla, the question remains if it your data is ever really deleted by Google Drive once you stop using their service given the license.

Where is the client-side encryption?

Yeah right.

The problem with reading these terms in light of Google Drive alone is that not all of it applies to that one service. Collectively, they apply also to Google+, YouTube, Maps, Translate and all other services (except Apps). Even so, I can imagine that there will be situations in which it makes sense for Google to retain your Drive data even after you've closed your account. Think of the ability to share content with others. You upload a document to Drive, then you share it with another Drive user. Your content now sits in two accounts. If you close your own account, should Google delete your shared content from the other account?

Either way, the moment you upload anything to the cloud, or even send it on the Net, you're passing it through other services.

File deletion is a critical point, imho. If it's my space on Drive, and I delete a file, I do not want it hanging around. Perhaps there ought to be a delete to trash folder, then, to avoid accidental deletion, an empty trash option that you're reminded to do every-so-often.

The T&Cs for Drive need clarification by Google, for sure.

This ridiculous TOS is not Google's fault.

Since they cloned DropBox - it appears that they included their old TOS, and shall (hopefuly) modify it same as DropBox did.

Last July, Dropbox published a revised Terms of Service... It contained this jaw-dropping paragraph:

By submitting your stuff to the Services, you grant us (and those we work with to provide the Services) worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable rights to use, copy, distribute, prepare derivative works ...

Within days, Dropbox revised its TOS again, adding a clarifying sentence: “This license is solely to enable us to technically administer, display, and operate the Services.” But the damage had already been done. It’s hard to recover trust when it’s lost.

[zdnet.com...]

If it's my space on Drive, and I delete a file, I do not want it hanging around

Always remember ..when you delete..you actually don't..you just tell the system forget that X was there..X is still there ..and be very easily recovered..from your HD..or from Google's et al..even after successive "random" overwrites..even modern file systems leave traces in the "corners"..

These "stores" will just tell their systems to forget the pointers..and where they point to ..but they can recover from their amnesia..relatively easily..

Your file that you shared with your friend is not in both your accounts ..only the various different pointers to it exist in two or more places ..the file probably exists in only one place with a copy as backup ( that is movable and moving )..when you delete they just lose your pointer ..the file is still there until the space it occupied is totally is overwritten ..and even then there are vestiges and fragments..

Always remember ..when you delete..you actually don't..you just tell the system forget that X was there..X is still there ..and be very easily recovered..from your HD..or from Google's et al..even after successive "random" overwrites..even modern file systems leave traces in the "corners"..

Yup, i'm well up to speed on that.

The point really is for cloud-based services. It'd do their reputation good if they provided the ability to delete, and I mean delete (such as a secure erase, dban).

I'd never use them any way ..even if they offered that ..which would be awkward/ unfeasable for them to implement, given the number of simultaneous writes they'll be having to the same discs from other users at the same time...

I'm at about 25T stored and backed up here ..with my fingers crossed waiting for Thailand to finish drying out and the prices to get back to reasonable ..I'm down to my last 5T/10T of space ( 5 live ..5 spare for backing it up )...prices on fast big HDs are still silly / rip off compared to where we were when I last bought in HDs, just before the floods..

The TOS for Google Drive appears at the bottom of one of the Drive's pages. It points you back to their NEW AND IMPROVED consolidated TOS, which they clearly state it applies to all Services.

You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

You're missing the point... it's great that Google states it's our property, but they also make it clear they can share that data with their partners.

Who did they offer this for? Many webmasters have lost trust in Google, that TOS doesn't help, and I don't see regular people switching from Facebook for this. Who was the intended consumer?

There's a little paranoia in some of the above posts.

Here are the seemingly relevant sections of the Google TOS [google.com...] . I have emboldened those I see as 'reassuring'.

Privacy and Copyright Protection

Google’s privacy policies explain how we treat your personal data and protect your privacy when you use our Services. By using our Services, you agree that Google can use such data in accordance with our privacy policies.

We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement and terminate accounts of repeat infringers according to the process set out in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

We provide information to help copyright holders manage their intellectual property online. If you think somebody is violating your copyrights and want to notify us, you can find information about submitting notices and Google’s policy about responding to notices in our Help Center.

Your Content in our Services

Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services. Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services.

You can find more information about how Google uses and stores content in the privacy policy or additional terms for particular Services. If you submit feedback or suggestions about our Services, we may use your feedback or suggestions without obligation to you.

This all seems more or less okay to me. They need an IP license to do anything useful with your content, to provide the very service you presumably want, but limit the extent of use. I don't like the mention of "promoting, and improving our Services" but taken as a whole it doesn't seem to be the intent that they can do anything they like with your content. Particularly they are effectively extending the IP license to the controls set in the software. I.e. if you don't tick the box saying it's to be shared, it's not licensed for sharing, so they can't.

I remain concerned about the lack of options for client-side encryption with all of these services. It is a problem that a rogue employee at Google, or wherever, can access your data.

So basically you have to get an Google+ account to use Drive? If so, I'll just sign up for G3 and never use it?

Well the rights issue made it to the mainstream press.

USA Today story: Content rights confusion greets Google Drive [usatoday.com]

Google is already facing spasms of suspicion and confusion as it tries to persuade people to entrust their personal documents, photos and other digital content to the company's new online storage service.

That became apparent shortly after Tuesday's release of the long-awaited Google Drive service....

.

Compare DB - SkyDrive - G Drive

[windows.microsoft.com...]