How do you scrape websites that use services like Brassring?

Could Google scrape your Google Docs for Intellectual Property for its own use and which you have no legal recourse?

• A friend of mine sent me some old links (circa 2007) relating to the EULA for Google Docs, that attest that Google 'could' potentially own the IP in your Google Docs and if you threatened any lawsuits against Google if you found this out - you have no leg to stand on. Its sounds very dubious to me but I would like to know if the situation has changed since 2007 The original article is here: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/greenbaum/the-content-in-google-apps-belongs-to-google/130 And a comments related to it were: At first, everything is fine: Google claims no ownership or control over any Content submitted, posted or displayed by you on or through Google services. You or a third party licensor, as appropriate, retain all patent, trademark and copyright to any Content you submit, post or display on or through Google services and you are responsible for protecting those rights, as appropriate. But then something very troubling hits: By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through Google services which are intended to be available to the members of the public, you grant Google a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, modify, publish and distribute such Content on Google services for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting Google services. Google reserves the right to syndicate Content submitted, posted or displayed by you on or through Google services and use that Content in connection with any service offered by Google. I don't like this. Not one bit. Google's applications are intended to make information available "to the public." The minute you share, I would argue, you've crossed that line. And that's when the user's rights evaporate.... For the purpose of "promoting Google services" is too broad--it gives Google way too much wiggle room. And then the follow-on sentence, reserving the right for Google to use one's content for other Google services...I like that even less. Reading the company's data privacy policy doesn't remediate the above. It leaves a gaping hole for Google to drive its privacy invasion "truck" through.

• Answer:

  I am not a lawyer, so do not consider this to be legal advice. However, from my reading of it, and of articles relating to it, I believe the answer is no. The problem is that the average layperson has a lot of trouble interpreting the sort of bare-bones legalese that make up these EULAs, and since people are pretty scared of big businesses already, they are primed to put the worst possible spin they can on what they read. Generally speaking, services like Google only claim rights to "publicly display" or "publicly perform" works so that, when you want to publicly display it or perform it, they can do it for you without leaving themselves open to legal trouble. It doesn't make sense from a common sense standpoint that they would try to claim more than that, because if they did, and seriously tried to press it in court, they'd shed users by the droves. So, essentially, these seemingly-extravagant claims Google makes are really just for the purpose of covering their own rear ends lest someone try to sue them because they didn't like the way Google re-wrapped their document to display it on a small tablet or some such thing. The truly sad thing about our modern society is that such rear-end-covering is even necessary.