[Ninjalawyer]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

So, if I was working on a book and saving a backup copy in their Cloud they could put together those chapters and start distributing them? Seems a bit overhanded.

No, it doesn't mean that because what you quoted has to be read in the context of what comes before and after it:

Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services. Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services.

The license you grant Google is specifically limited and, as JoeD pointed out, what is minimally necessary for them to operate their services.

The current complaints about Google Drive's terms of service are more FUD than fact, and are really only a result of the previous fervor over Google unifying its privacy policy across its products (and allowing sharing of user data between Google products). Google's business model is to get as much personal data about you as possible, but they don't particularly care about your novel.

I'm not criticizing you Kumabjorn, it's more a criticism of all the sites looking for any and every criticism of Google, even where it makes no sense. If anyone is interested in what the terms of service say, rather than blogger fearmongering for hits, they are here.