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Google Drive vs. Dropbox Terms of Service

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Re: Google Drive vs. Dropbox Terms of Service

#101

Post by adgar »

Xuzz wrote: post #89
rfugger wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's is worse because it takes all rights to use your work however it likes, and then states in its privacy policy that it won't use it for anything other than to provide the service. But if it likes, it can amend the privacy policy in the future to remove or modify that limitation. So you have to trust Google, which may be fine now, but what about in 20 years? They have rights to your work forever. Other provide…

I'm confused. You say Google "states in its privacy policy that it won't use it for anything other than to provide the service", but that's not good enough, because they can amend it later to remove that protection. How is that different from the other providers, who (as you said, again) "clearly state that they are only taking rights to your work for the purpose of providing the service"? What is different about the…

> I'm confused.

No, you're not. You identified a crystal clear double standard in your parent post.

Re: Google Drive vs. Dropbox Terms of Service

#102

Post by mangodrunk »

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #50
ajross wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really, the difference seems to be almost exclusively wording. Both licenses grant very broad powers to the service to redistribute (Google is guilty only of enumerating them more fully, where Dropbox simply claims "all the permissions we need"). Both providers include language that they will only do this in order "to provide the service", but neither enumerates exactly what that means. Does anyone see anything speci…

What people are noticing is perceived intent. Dropbox is clear what their intent is. Google is less clear. People like clarity, especially ewhen dealing with personal items.

First off, if it's not clear, these are excerpts of their policies.

>Dropbox is clear what their intent is.

It seems that you have it backwards, Dropbox is not clear in their intent and the language is vague. I'm not sure what this means:

>You give us the permissions we need to do those things solely to provide the Services.

It seems that they can pretty much do whatever they want, as "Services" doesn't preclude anything.

>This permission also extends to trusted third parties we work with to provide the Services

That sounds like third parties can do whatever they want as well.

Re: Google Drive vs. Dropbox Terms of Service

#103

Post by cube13 »

ctdonath wrote: post #30
stuartmemo wrote: post #6

Complete FUD. Best article I've read on this is from The Verge. Google would be unable to create backups or thumbnails for example without these rights. http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/25/2973849/google-drive-terms...

Problem is: the rights as worded by Google allow a whole lot more than the reasonable-use wording by Dropbox. Remember that recent flap about iOS apps uploading users' entire Contacts list for non-relevant uses? hey, users gave permission for the apps to access that data without explicit limits; same idea, same concerns.

>Problem is: the rights as worded by Google allow a whole lot more than the reasonable-use wording by Dropbox.

They actually don't. Google specifically enumerates the rights that you're granting them. Dropbox actually does not state specifically what rights Dropbox needs to provide the services, and as such, could claim that you're granting all of the rights that Google has granted and more. This does not include full ownership, which they explicitly deny.

Re: Google Drive vs. Dropbox Terms of Service

#104

Post by mangodrunk »

nicholassmith wrote: post #18

It's the derivative works part of the T&Cs for GDrive that makes it a little wonky, I don't want to give them full license to create any derivative work but I'm happy with them making changes for technical architecture. But that's so selective and does miss the part where they say your content and copyright is all yours, so it justifies picking on Google for being supposedly creepy.

As others have mentioned, it probably is about producing thumbnails of images or something like that.

>You give us the permissions we need to do those things solely to provide the Services.

This give Dropbox the ability to modify your images to create thumbnails as well if that's a part of their service. It also allows them to do whatever else they want without being explicit and hiding behind vague wording.

Re: Google Drive vs. Dropbox Terms of Service

#105

Post by huhtenberg »

trustmeimadr wrote: post #88
huhtenberg wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TC volume needs to be unmounted in order for gDrive/Dropbox to be able to sync it. For that you need to close all apps that are currently using any files on that volume. That's not exactly easy-breezy. In fact, it's a major pain in the ass, so - no, this is not a practical option.

What about using encfs?

On Windows?

Re: Google Drive vs. Dropbox Terms of Service

#106

Post by dudus »

stuartmemo wrote: post #6

Complete FUD. Best article I've read on this is from The Verge. Google would be unable to create backups or thumbnails for example without these rights. http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/25/2973849/google-drive-terms...

I agree it's a lot of FUD around this subject. I started to have some weird thoughts that Dropbox is creating all this FUD

Re: Google Drive vs. Dropbox Terms of Service

#107

Post by [deleted] »

ajross wrote: post #81
nooop wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What isn't clear in "promoting" the Services? Google can broadcast TV ads with your private photos if they want to.

No, they can't; don't be silly. That's not what "promoting" means, and in any case such a use would be a clear copyright violation (note elsewhere in the license where they make it clear that you still own the copyright). It seems clear to me that the intent is things like the Youtube "recommended" list. If you upload a public video, they need permission to repackage it for display in other contexts than direct viewi…

[deleted]

Re: Google Drive vs. Dropbox Terms of Service

#109

Post by dkarl »

Xuzz wrote: post #7

On the other hand, this post from The Verge explains what is actually going on: http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/25/2973849/google-drive-terms... The important quote: "Looking at some of Google's competitors, it's clear that they need the exact same permissions — they just use slightly more artful language to communicate them." All of these services need similar permissions, as do most web services: it's just an artifa…

The article posted here on HN cheats by including an important sentence from the DropBox TOS and sneakily omitting the corresponding sentence from the Google TOS.

DropBox: You give us the permissions we need to do those things solely to provide the Services.

Google: The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones.

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