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Google does not want rights to things you do using Chrome (2008)

mattcutts.com

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Re: Google does not want rights to things you do using Chrome (2008)

#41

Post by KennyBlanken »

ur-whale wrote: post #8

Matt Cutts was one of the Google search OGs. The kind of cultural values (e.g. make user happy all else will follow) he and a number of other original Google employees believed in and tried to defend have loooong been overridden by the Sundars and other Prabakhars who only kowtowed to the short-term demands of wall street. Cutts, Ben Gomes and similar-minded do-gooders have all neatly been benched a long time ago.

I'm sorry, but please stop pretending that a company which came about thanks to a DARPA grant and then received seed funding from the investment company used by the US intelligence agencies to fund projects they like, had noble intentions at any point in time.

Re: Google does not want rights to things you do using Chrome (2008)

#42

Post by 1oooqooq »

vincnetas wrote: post #5

Looks like this article might need a new "Updated" entry because current chrome ToS points to generic : https://policies.google.com/terms

important fact missing in the article (maybe even from title): matt never spoke for google and didn't work at google since the mid 2010s i think.

he's an early hire who became a star Obama-era DOGEdepto-esque (mostly for good) technocrat, which then caused most of his peers to be hired left and right in hopes to get access to that cadre.

Re: Google does not want rights to things you do using Chrome (2008)

#43

Post by bo1024 »

One takeaway of the Mozilla debacle is that software as a non-service is dying if not dead.

What I mean is the concept that software could be a thing that someone just obtains, like a pencil. The things you write with a pencil belong to you. The pencil belongs to you. You don't have an ongoing contractual licensing agreement with the pencil manufacturer that gives them a worldwide non-commercial right to reflect light off the graphite in order to display words.

In 2008, Google had already begun to forget that software could be like a pencil. It seems that in 2025, even the concept is alien to lawyers and perhaps developers at Mozilla, and many other places. The do not understand how one could use a software tool without granting the company behind it a license to everything you do with the tool, because they do not understand the concept of software usage except as a business relationship between the user and the company who developed it.

Re: Google does not want rights to things you do using Chrome (2008)

#44

Post by ljlolel »

bo1024 wrote: post #43

One takeaway of the Mozilla debacle is that software as a non-service is dying if not dead. What I mean is the concept that software could be a thing that someone just obtains , like a pencil. The things you write with a pencil belong to you. The pencil belongs to you. You don't have an ongoing contractual licensing agreement with the pencil manufacturer that gives them a worldwide non-commercial right to reflect lig…

If AI makes the cost of development low enough then some individuals or small teams will still sell software like a pencil

Re: Google does not want rights to things you do using Chrome (2008)

#45

Post by robotnikman »

pmichaud wrote: post #31
20after4 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at deviantArt back in the early 2010s, they notably had a user agreement that did not claim any rights more than necessary, and it was revocable by the user without jumping through hoops. So it's not necessary to do things this way, companies do it intentionally because they don't care about the rights of their users.

I am building a company that accepts user generated data, and one surprising struggle is getting my lawyers to stop writing shitty, overbroad, abusive TOS. They are just so used to it, and all the templates and boiler plate is designed to give me everything and the user nothing. And if I want to do better by ny users I have to fight and cajole my own lawyers and pay extra for them to do the extra work of writing term…

Wishing you luck, you are doing some good work putting in the effort to respect the data of the user, something which stands out in a seas full of companies who do not care.

Re: Google does not want rights to things you do using Chrome (2008)

#46

Post by Eddy_Viscosity2 »

bo1024 wrote: post #43

One takeaway of the Mozilla debacle is that software as a non-service is dying if not dead. What I mean is the concept that software could be a thing that someone just obtains , like a pencil. The things you write with a pencil belong to you. The pencil belongs to you. You don't have an ongoing contractual licensing agreement with the pencil manufacturer that gives them a worldwide non-commercial right to reflect lig…

Oh they understand the concept. Its just that the recurring revenue and data are more important and without competition or alternatives then why not take everything you can take from the user. What are they going to do? Stop using the internet?

Re: Google does not want rights to things you do using Chrome (2008)

#47

Post by bear141 »

relaxing wrote: post #36
barbazoo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One day they’ll write the things into the address bar for us :)

That’s basically the goal of the last decade of changes to Google search culminating in AI summaries: give you the information they think you want on the results page to stop you from leaving for another url.

In my mind it’s more like they give you what they want you to accept in these results and the AI summaries. It really seems like the days where any of these giant corps gave you what you actually wanted are long past.

Re: Google does not want rights to things you do using Chrome (2008)

#48

Post by userbinator »

Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote: post #46
bo1024 wrote: post #43

One takeaway of the Mozilla debacle is that software as a non-service is dying if not dead. What I mean is the concept that software could be a thing that someone just obtains , like a pencil. The things you write with a pencil belong to you. The pencil belongs to you. You don't have an ongoing contractual licensing agreement with the pencil manufacturer that gives them a worldwide non-commercial right to reflect lig…

Oh they understand the concept. Its just that the recurring revenue and data are more important and without competition or alternatives then why not take everything you can take from the user. What are they going to do? Stop using the internet?

What are they going to do? Stop using the internet?

Stop using newer versions of the software. Firefox is open-source, so forking and fixing the older versions before these hostile changes is not impossible.

Re: Google does not want rights to things you do using Chrome (2008)

#49

Post by sdrinf »

Mozilla is sooo fucked here. On one hand, it would take them approx ~1 sentence of blog to say "We won't sell your input info to anyone" and this drama goes away.

OTOH: if the currently pending court case on anti-monopoly bars google from making payments to mozilla (which is about ~90%++ of their revenue), mozilla truly, and well is fucked. Meaning -they need to diversify, and they know it; they can't sell browsers, related services are heavily competed for, so ads & selling user data is broadly the only viable strat that can underwrite their existence.

Of course, the community won't have it. And therein lies the rub: by going with google's bribe, on this long term, they wrote themselves into a corner they can't exit.

Re: Google does not want rights to things you do using Chrome (2008)

#50

Post by Eddy_Viscosity2 »

userbinator wrote: post #48
Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh they understand the concept. Its just that the recurring revenue and data are more important and without competition or alternatives then why not take everything you can take from the user. What are they going to do? Stop using the internet?

What are they going to do? Stop using the internet? Stop using newer versions of the software. Firefox is open-source, so forking and fixing the older versions before these hostile changes is not impossible.

I hope this is true. I don't know how to maintain a web browser, hopefully those that do are willing to do the work to keep it running.
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