13 September 2007

Google has denied claims it owns users' words

Search engine giant Google has denied that its user agreement for Google Docs means it has ownership of any user's content published using the application, ZDNet.com reports.

Concern about the issue was initially raised in a blog written by Joshua Greenbaum of ZDNet.com, who claimed that anyone in the business world who ignored Google's terms and conditions risked "seeing their IP in a Google marketing campaign, or worse".

Google Docs, which offers a range of applications, including a document management system, document publisher, email and web-based calendar, was launched in October last year at the Office 2.0 Conference in San Francisco.

It is intended as a means of providing an innovative and efficient way of creating and sharing information over the internet.

In the terms and conditions, however, Google states that by submitting or posting content on or through Google services "you grant Google a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to reproduce ... publish and distribute such content on Google services for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting Google services".

Responding to the concerns raised over this clause, Google Australia issued a statement saying that the search engine does not claim ownership over content in Google Docs.

It added that, read in its entirety, the user agreement makes clear that Google will not use documents beyond the scope that users permit.

The IT consultancy provider Capgemini recently announced that it is extending its outsourcing to include Google Apps, in which Docs feature.

This means that search engine has secured a crucial foothold in the corporate sector.

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