everwas

Legalese down your throat

As someone who played around with Google Video shortly after launch I got an email last night letting me know that Google will start running advertisements on selected content. At the end of the email it asks you to login to agree to a new Terms of Service. Is it just me or does this line sound strange?

If you don’t agree to the new TOS, we will assume you acknowledge and accept these changes, and will include your content in Google Video, as it is today.

I would have thought that legally, they need to assume that not reviewing a revised TOS means defaults to not agreeing and opting you out. What if I was hiking Kilimanjaro and just didn’t have a chance to check my email?

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Ian Kennedy

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3 responses to “Legalese down your throat”

  1. /pd Avatar
    /pd

    care to share the full email ??

    Reply
  2. ian Avatar
    ian

    here’s the full text:

    Original Message
    From: Google Video
    Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 3:57 AM
    Subject: Greetings from Google Video

    Hello Uploader,

    It’s the Google Video Team again, back with an exciting update. We’ve been working hard to make Google Video the best way to find and play video on the web, and we hope some of our recent features are useful to you:

    Instant gratification: A web-based video uploader
    (http://video.google.com/videouploadform) for immediate upload and playback
    Share your video with the world, or maybe just your friends: Single-click video posting to popular blog services, including MySpace and Blogger
    Get involved!: Now add ratings, tags, and comments for all videos
    Zeit-what? Now you can see a “Top 100” list (http://video.google.com/videoranking),
    updated daily, that shows what people are watching
    It’s “Football”, not “Soccer”: Google Video now exists in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Poland, and the Netherlands

    And there’s a lot more to come — you may have noticed that we’re also been experimenting with making “for sale” content free by sponsoring videos with ads. By doing this we’ve been able to expose a lot of great video to our users, like content from Charlie Rose (http://video.google.com/freetoday.html).

    Because this test has been successful, we’re continuing to experiment with using ads to extend content distribution. To do this, we’ve made some minor modifications to our Terms of Service (TOS) so you can participate in ad programs we may roll out in the future. Please take a moment to review the changes by logging into your account at https://upload.video.google.com and accepting the new terms and conditions. If you don’t agree to the new TOS, we will assume you acknowledge and accept these changes, and will include your content in Google Video, as it is today.

    Keep the video rolling… and, as they say, the best is yet to come!

    Anticipating even more fun,
    The Google Video Team

    Reply
  3. /pd Avatar
    /pd

    thanks !! this is so kewl :)_

    Reply

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