Before anyone else says anything, I will simply say that this is a legal question. No one that I know of in the group is a legal expert, so any advice that you receive through this forum should be considered suspect. If you have ANY doubts whatsoever - and even if you don't - it would likely be wise to seek the advice of a real legal expert.
In addition, the "Google Reader API" is unofficial and should, itself, be considered suspect. While it is certainly, technically possible to reverse engineer an API based on any number of Google's private services, Google's general TOS prohibit any means of access to Google services except those explicitly developed, released, documented, and licensed by Google. For reading feeds and such, that would (to my knowledge) limit you to the Google Feeds API. That said, the Google Feeds API does not really allow you to interface with the Google Reader application. You can't add or remove subscriptions, etc., in Google Reader. But you can build your own reader on its back. Assuming that you do this, I believe that the TOS would be interpreted to mean that you can't charge for the services provided by the API. But you could charge for the development of the application. There are additional relevant sections of the Feeds API TOS which you should certainly read before you base an application on it. You should also consider that Google has been actively migrating its various APIs toward a centralized backend infrastructure, and the Feeds API is not a part of that. I would not be at all surprised to see the API deprecated and (ultimately) discontinued at some point in the relatively near future. Considering the services that it offers, in light of these obligations and risks, I would give very serious thought to developing your own backend for such an application. Jeremy R. Geerdes Generally Cool Guy Des Moines, IA For more information or a project quote: [email protected] If you're in the Des Moines, IA, area, check out Debra Heights Wesleyan Church! On Oct 14, 2011, at 6:58 PM, [email protected] wrote: > Hi folks, > > Is it possible to make a paid ios/android app based on the google > reader API? The terms of use make it seem like this should not be > possible - however some of top selling Google reader clients in the > ios app store are paid applications. I plan to write a client that > folks can use to read and manager their RSS feeds - so I would like to > know if I can make it paid or will need to use ads. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Google AJAX APIs" group. > To post to this group, send email to > [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > To view this message on the web, visit > http://groups.google.com/group/google-ajax-search-api?hl=en_US > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/google-ajax-search-api?hl=en?hl=en -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google AJAX APIs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] To view this message on the web, visit http://groups.google.com/group/google-ajax-search-api?hl=en_US For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-ajax-search-api?hl=en?hl=en
