Google amends Chrome license agreement after objections

Google said it borrowed language from other products, "in order to keep things simple for our users," when it inserted the copyright provision in the Chrome license.

"Sometimes, as in the case of Google Chrome, this means that the legal terms for a specific product may include terms that don't apply well to the use of that product," Rebecca Ward, senior product counsel for Chrome, said in a statement. "We are working quickly to remove language from Section 11 of the current Google Chrome terms of service. This change will apply retroactively to all users who have downloaded Google Chrome."

[PJ: They said they wouldn't do evil, not that they'd never make a mistake. And this is how legal documents are drafted every day -- you take another one, and you copy what you need, which is why lawyers ought to be able to understand the value of the Open Source development model. But the downside in legal work is that sometimes you get so used to a particular paragraph always being there, you don't think it through carefully enough in the new document. Then you fix it.] - Grant Gross, InfoWorld

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