Coming from an open-source developer perspective, it's frustrating that people who don't have a working knowledge of copyright still feel free to speak as if th

Coming from an open-source developer perspective, it's frustrating that people who don't have a working knowledge of copyright still feel free to speak as if they are knowledgeable about copyright on sites like HN. Copyright is second-nature to anyone who has to deal with open-source licenses, CLAs, and so on on a day to day basis -- so let me try to explain: Everything you do is by default copyright by you in the US. When you make a copy of your own work and give it to somebody the recipient of that copy needs a license from you to describe how they are allowed to use it. If the person you give it to does not receive a license from you, then they are violating your copyright and you can sue them. This means that the second you upload a work of your own to Google, if they do not have a license to that data then they are violating your copyright -- even though you chose to upload it to them. When you conclude that Google intended to say "By default all your data belongs to us" you are showing that you really don't understand the difference between owning a copyright and having a license. Please, stop speaking with authority about copyright issues if you do not understand them because it does not do the HN community a service. You still own the copyright on your work and you have given Google a license to use it. That license is broad because Google (and in this case Google Docs/Drive) has a broad set of features that allow you to do lots of things with your data. When you use a feature like sharing a Google Doc with somebody, you are not doing those things -- you are asking Google to do those things with your data via HTTP requests. Google has to be a allowed to do those things legally and the license implements that. For example, Google Docs/Drive has that 'Anyone with the Link' ACL that allows anyone on the Internet to view or edit your document so of course Google needs a "worldwide license to host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works...". You or anyone else editing a document in Google Docs is creating derivative works of that original document you uploaded. Please, understand that "You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content" means just what it says. And "you give Google [...] a worldwide license [...]" is not at all contradictory with that. I've only talked about US law at this point but remember that Google has to deal with copyright in every country. A broad license like this is just a fact of offering the features Google does worldwide.