With Web 2.0 came so many options for webmasters. Videos you can embed, API's on everything, XML, RSS, and more. However, as I'm sure many of you noticed, burried deep in the TOS of most sites offering these services is a noncommercial use clause. We all know why these clauses are there, the big boys want to cover their asses in case of abuse. It is also a handy way to shut down someone when you don't want to associate with them further. The problem with this is that these sites want you to use their content! How many times have you seen a YouTube video embedded on a site with no advertising? How many sites have you ever heard of Google fighting legally because it had Google News headlines beside an Adsense unit? None? Me either. Something needs to change with these websites and it needs to change soon. There are literally hundreds of applications that you are encouraged to add to your websites yet they all say non-commercial use only. If you ever push the wrong button with these websites do you think they would hesitate to shut you down or even sue for damages? It is ridiculous to expect webmasters to allow these companies to put them in a position of possible legal action for something they allow if not actively encourage you to do. Here is an example from the Google API page for Google News. http://news.google.com/intl/en_us/news_feed_terms.html "Terms of use We invite you to make noncommercial use of Google's RSS and Atom feeds on your website subject to these terms, Google's Terms of Service, and the Google News Terms of Service. If you incorporate our feeds onto your website, please also: attribute the feeds to Google News. attribute each news item to its provider, using the provider name as it appears in the Google News feed. include a link to the Google News cluster of related articles for each news item, using the link provided in the Google News feed. identify the search terms used to generate the feed." So we already have the noncommercial clause in the small disclaimer they provide. It specifically states that you can put these feeds on your website, albeit noncommercial site, with a few stipulations. However, if you go over to the Google News TOS you will find the following: "You may only display the content of the Service for your own personal use (i.e., non-commercial use)..." So first they allow this on a personal website as long as you give them credit. You move over to the other TOS for News specifically and it defines non-commercial as for "your own personal use". What? Talk about confusing. So you have to credit Google News if you put this on your site but you are the only one allowed to read it? As if that's not bad enough it gets even worse for blogger feeds. Here is the suggestion given at the top of the Google Blogger API page as a possible use: "Create a blog aggregator application." So I can make a blog aggregator? Great! This is exactly why I love Web 2.0 and how sites are able to add a lot of additional traffic without having to create their own applications. But wait? Their is no API specific TOS on this page but there is a standard Google TOS which includes this doozy: "The Google Services are made available for your personal, non-commercial use only. You may not use the Google Services to sell a product or service, or to increase traffic to your Web site for commercial reasons, such as advertising sales. You may not take the results from a Google search and reformat and display them, or mirror the Google home page or results pages on your Web site." So wait, I can make an aggregator that is for non-commercial use (as if I'd ever) but it's for my personal use only again? What in the hell? Not only that I can't reformat or redisplay the results of a Google Search. Does this include searches done with the API Mr. Sergey? I could list hundreds of other examples from multiple sites but they all read basically the same. Here is an API so you can build some bad-ass applications, but you can't make money on them and you can't show them to anyone but yourself. If you do we have the right to sue you for damages as well as possible copyright infringement. THIS NONSENSE HAS GOT TO STOP! If anyone has any suggestions how to best reach out in numbers to these companies please list them here. We all know they want our traffic and our labor on these applications but they reserve the right to stick it to us good at any time? Dear sirs, the internet is growing up. Your bulletproof TOS will eventually come into question and with the language you currently use, it should. Do the right thing and write a fair TOS that protects you as well as the end user that you cheer along into violating the contract your 7 figure a year lawyers wrote years ago. Cheers
One more post on the idiocy from these companies, on the official Google Video Blog they link to a handful of "fan blogs". Here is one: http://www.clipaday.com/ Notice any commercial use there? What about these? http://www.videofinds.com/ http://googlevideos.blogspot.com/ http://gvod.blogspot.com/ http://gvhighlights.blogspot.com/ http://www.googleidol.com/ Out of 7 blogs linked from the official Google Video blog only one wasn't monetized in some way. 6 out of 7 bloggers agree, Google's TOS is b/s.
That's why you clarify first before using them. And don't use them if you don't agree to their terms. They can consider your thoughts. But they don't have to act on them. Who knows? Maybe they won't, maybe they will.