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Who owns ideas in the “Cloud”?

In the Information Age the definition of “property rights” has shifted to include things you might not have initially considered. Ideas are now more accessible than ever and it’s critical to understand who owns them.

The issue was raised recently when, as the Los Angeles Times reported, Google announced that its Google Drive came with the promise that users will “retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content.” However, when a user save files to Google’s hard-drive folder in the cloud, the terms of service you sign off on grant Google “a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works, communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute [your] content.” No questions asked.

When questioned about the inconsistency and the IP problems the language presented Google responded by saying that the provision exists only to “enable us to give you the services you want – so if you decide to share a document with someone, or open it on a different device, you can.” Sounds simple enough, but is it?

Recently many companies have added language to their terms of use saying much the same thing, potentially granting intellectual property rights over vast troves of data. Email providers, photo-sharing services, social networks, and document hosting firms may all have authority to do as they please with the information you entrust to them. One shocking example occurred in 2009 when Facebook let advertisers distribute users’ photos to market products without ever asking permission.

The companies themselves make the case that intellectual property serves as a substitute for payment for their services. The argument is that the online services users turn to cost money to operate and since no one pays for the service with cash, you instead pay by allowing the companies to monetize the information they have about you.
While the practice isn’t all bad, it’s important that consumers realize that when they mindlessly hit “Agree” while opening an account they may have given away more than they bargained for.

Source:Property rights in the cloud,” by David Sirota, published at SFGate.com.

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