Google Privacy. Oxymoron?

Google Privacy. Oxymoron?

If you use Google, have you ever read their privacy policy? If you haven’t, please keep reading. The policy delineates under what circumstances Google can peruse your information, including your e-mails, for disclosure to third parties. While you may not think the policy will ever affect you, your e-mails and other messages on Google could be disclosed by the company under certain circumstances. What are they?

Generally, Google will not disclose your information to third parties without your consent and, in the case of sensitive personal information, without your “explicit consent.” The company’s privacy policy makes clear, however, that it may disclose your information to “affiliates and other trusted businesses or persons,” which is a pretty broad category. Google also makes another exception to “[m]eet any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or enforceable governmental request.” These categories could include, for example, a subpoena sent to Google from a plaintiff in a copyright infringement lawsuit or a court order.

Even when you receive a notice from Google that a subpoena seeks the disclosure of your information, or identity, you still have choices. The same is true of a court order. You can ask that Google “quash” the subpoena — which means that the subpoena is overly broad or seeks information irrelevant to the underlying lawsuit. In the case of a court order, it can be stayed pending an appeal. Needless to say, if you don’t care about your information being disclosed, you can do nothing. But if the subpoena seeks to unmask you so as to name you in a copyright infringement lawsuit, or otherwise, doing nothing may not be wise. A fair use other other defense may conclusively establish that the lawsuit is a sham.

Rather than using Google — or even social media outlets like Facebook — with your eyes closed, it is probably better to know what you are getting yourself into. Otherwise, you may be unpleasantly surprised one day when you find out what you thought was private isn’t.

The big bad wolf to the . . . rescue?

The big bad wolf to the . . . rescue?

If you work in technology, the big bad fair use wolf can be your best friend. Read below to find out why.

A few days ago, the U.S. Supreme court denied Google’s appeal from a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit which found that source code — written instructions that run computer software — can be protected by copyright law. In so doing, the nation’s highest court left in tact a ruling by the Federal Circuit which found Google could have infringed the copyright to Oracle’s software programming platform.

To the extent Oracle’s code is original and non-functional, then it should find protection against wolves inside a nice cozy copyright house during the cold winter. That’s because this type of source code is akin to the original combinations of words that authors use as inputs into their own hardware — books, screenplays, or plays. Because these words are original expressions of perhaps unoriginal ideas, they are copyrightable subject matter. No less should be true about original non-functional source code.

Nonetheless, the copyright house isn’t impervious to the elements outside. If you copy the idea behind a copyrighted work, then you have no liability because ideas aren’t protected by copyright law — but functional ideas can be potentially patented. That’s why, when copyrighted expression is so inextricably linked with a functional idea, many federal courts will deny copyright protection to the expression, especially in the case of functional source code. Small tweaks in code inspired by not all that original — but original enough for copyright protection — source code can keep you away from the infringement line. In such a crowded market, there are only so many ways to express a functional idea, which is why courts are remiss about extending the scope of copyright protection for any one particular expression. To do otherwise would hurt innovation. No less is true in other expressive endeavors. The scope of copyright protecting less original works — such as a “me too” drip style painting inspired by the works of Jackson Pollock — is smaller than that for pioneering ones — such as an architectural design that blends, for the first time, Frank Lloyd Wright with Frank Gehry.

Even if Oracle’s source code can jump the foregoing copyright hurdles, the story doesn’t end there.The lower court has yet to decide whether Google has a fair use defense. In the end, if Oracle’s source code is original enough for copyright but not so original so as to read that protection broadly, then Google’s fair use big bad wolf will likely huff, puff, and blow over Oracle’s copyright lawsuit to the ground.

Google can learn from Mr. Jeff Spicoli.

Google can learn from Mr. Jeff Spicoli.

“Luckily for us, surfing isn’t an organized sport,” Travis Ferre explains in the May 2011 issue of Surfing Magazine. That is a good thing because it has kept the surfing industry diverse and authentic. Google, which has gotten so bureaucratic that good ideas come to market too slowly, can learn from the surfing industry’s more disorganized and yet innovative ethos.

As Mr. Ferre explains in his article, surfing is not an “Ocean Pacific ad anymore,” since the waves are now full of “tight denim modsters, dreadlocked carvers, trained competitors, soloists who wander alone, flannel-clad grizzly bears that love the cold, sandy groms, ex-cons, teachers, chicks.” There has been press lately that Google has gotten so big and organized that it now takes too long to innovate. A good idea has to be passed through several layers of committees, like in the picture to the left, before the idea comes to market. The problem is, by the time the idea comes to market, a competitor has already beaten Google to the punch. Of course, Google, and others companies like it, are too big to be as disorganized as the surfing industry — or Mr. Jeff Spicoli, the surfer played by Mr. Sean Penn in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. But being too organized can be maladaptive, too. As evidence: Larry Page, one of Google’s founders, has taken the reins from former CEO Eric Schmidt in order to “streamline decision making.” In so doing, Mr. Page wants to bring some cutting edge ethos back to the spirit of the giant company. As such, Google can learn from Mr. Spicoli. Because he didn’t have a committee to govern each step of his behavior, he was the only student to think of having a pizza delivered to class.