OT:Google Loves You

[Burt Alcantara]

If you are concerned about privacy and ownership of all that is on your computer then read this!

http://scholarsandrogues.wordpress....-terms-of-service-legalese-no-one-ever-reads/

 

[Steve Worcester]

I guess what do you expect for the ability to post for free?

I can tell you those Tc&Cs aren't that far off from any public posting web site.

Essentially, if you want to keep the copyrights, don't post it there (or anywhere but your own site for that matter).
I am sure people browse through the photo galleries here for ideas and it is almost certain that we use those photos for promotion of the AAW, but we also give credit to the owners (or makers in this case).

 

[Burt Alcantara]

Steve,
I love the photos here as they are great inspiration for my own work. I have copied them and printed them so I can look at them without having to go to the computer. I have no intention of claiming ownership, selling them, giving them to someone else or otherwise disrespect the creator of this content.

My concern regarding this thread was parts of the TOS seem illegal and an invasion of privacy, I see no difference between this and someone maliciously hacking into my computer to do the same, especially from a company whose "mission statement" is "Do No Evil."

The issue is Google taking my property from MY computer to do what they will. I understand very clearly that posting on any web site essentially means donating content to the Public Domain.

Removing content from my computer is theft.

Google is still facing suits from publishers because they copied for publication, content without permission. Their reasoning is, if it exists then we have a right to do anything we want, regardless of what you may think.

You may recall that Yahoo faced a similar test of ownership where they claimed ownership of content posted on their sites. Not the same here because the never took anything from the originating site, just their site. In that case, they "lost" because of public outcry.

This is not what I'd call "Do No Evil."

Burt

 

[Steve Worcester]

This has ONLY to do with photos you post on their free web service, Picassa Web Albums, not anything to do with going onto your computer. It's their computers.

The reason Google is facing lawsuits from copyright owners is the owners post the material on public, or at least web crawler accessible websites. All Google (the search engine) does is look at jillions of websites and index it so you can search. Goofgle doesn't actually hold the data, just the pointers and indexes to that data.

In the case of Picassa, there are two products, one that is for editing photos, and one that is a website where you can publiclly show your photos. Now if I was paying for that webspace, I would expect the Tc&Cs to be a lot different.

 

[jdsilwones]

Do I own an image of my bowl that I posted to a site (for free) for the purpose of distributing that image to anyone who will look at it?
Hmmmmm, I must have missed something there.
The last time someone paid for a picture of one of my bowls was........

 

[Eric]

Retaining ownership of photo's

My daughter-in-law somehow puts a caption on the photo's with her name and a copyright statement. Does that protect her ownership rights to her work if she finds some else using it for profit or other personal gain?

 

[Ed Davidson]

The following is just my opinion...

Posting a copyright notice (on a photo for example), informs others of your intentions, and therefore does give some protection by discouraging copyright infringers, as their "we didn't know" defense would be compromised. However, enforceability of your copyright is only as good as your pocketbook is deep.

Alternatively, if a copyrighted photo is posted on a public forum, the poster is usually required to acknowledge the forum's Terms of Service as a prerequisite of their participation in the forum. In other words, if you post a photo, essay or whatever on a public forum, you are almost certainly agreeing with the TOS of that site.

Here's a link to a set of notes taken from a discussion on copyrights from a couple years ago...interesting reading.

 

[David Somers]

One other thought everyone.

The idea of free storage and free public display is pretty enticing. Obviously there is something to be paid as demonstrated here.

Why not just pay the extra few dollars and set up your own site on your own domain and gain the control over it that you don't feel you are getting from the free sites? The annual cost for a domain is cheap, under $10 depending on who you buy from. The cost for hosting your site is similarly cheap. The cost for some basic web editing or development software is cheap and in many cases has a pretty low learning curve if you aren't trying to be fancy. Post your own stuff on your own site. And obviously check the agreement for the site hosting your domain as well. <grin>

I know the freebies are fun.....but if you can't sleep at night having read the agreement, what good is it really?

Dave

 

[Ruth Niles]

Copyrights, patents and design patents, like locks on your front door, simply keep the honest folks honest. Posting a picture on the internet with "copyright" on it is the same as putting those signs in your front yard "security system" so the theives at least know they have be real quiet.

A patent can be $5,000, an enfringement case in court can be upwards of $250,000 by the time it's done.

I have a patent (pending) on my ss bottle stoppers, one of the owners of a very big supply company asked about selling them, I said I couldn't, I said "I have a patent so don't even think about doing a knock-off", to which he responded "Patents don't mean a thing". ah, I feel a lot better.

 

[Joe Greiner]

Copyrights, patents and design patents, like locks on your front door, simply keep the honest folks honest. Posting a picture on the internet with "copyright" on it is the same as putting those signs in your front yard "security system" so the theives at least know they have be real quiet.

A patent can be $5,000, an enfringement case in court can be upwards of $250,000 by the time it's done.

I have a patent (pending) on my ss bottle stoppers, one of the owners of a very big supply company asked about selling them, I said I couldn't, I said "I have a patent so don't even think about doing a knock-off", to which he responded "Patents don't mean a thing". ah, I feel a lot better.

Right sorry state of affairs, Ruth, but you're entirely correct. And, unless you do the application yourself, $5,000 is getting off cheap.

I've developed a few boons to mankind, but haven't applied for patents. I'm too old to need a resume, and don't see much value in goosing my obituary. Add the bother of establishing manufacturing operations, and it doesn't compute for me. And then there's the phenomenon of "patent trolls;" they predict the next improvement to your work, leapfrog the last 5 percent, and sue for infringement.

At least you've established your name and your product. That's probably worth more than the patent. If it's any comfort, Benjamin Franklin never took out a patent for any of his inventions; and he's the one we remember.

Joe