Google will brick Google Glasses if owners resell or loan them out

Terms of service warn users that their $1,500 high-tech specs will be deactivated if they try to resell or loan them to another person.

by Steven Musil

 April 17, 2013 4:41 PM PDT

If all you envisioned developing by being an early recipient of Google Glass Explorer Edition was a quick resale profit, think again: Google has rules against reselling the wearable tech without its permission.

As the Web giant began shipping the high-tech specs this week, it also unveiled a host of developer preview documentation, specs, and rules about what developers could and couldn't do. One of those things, apparently, is reselling or even loaning the $1,500 device to someone else. Developers who do risk having their prized specs deactivated.

As spotted by Wired, Google's terms of service regarding ownership and use are fairly specific:

 You may not resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person. If you resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person without Google's authorization, Google reserves the right to deactivate the device, and neither you nor the unauthorized person using the device will be entitled to any refund, product support, or product warranty.

That's not the only limitation placed on the new eyewear. Google, which generates 95 percent of its revenue through advertising,doesn't want developers placing ads on the hotly anticipated eyewear. The terms state that "Glassware" developers may not "serve or include any advertisements" and they "may not charge" users to download apps for the device.

The terms of service were revealed Tuesday, along with documentation for the Mirror API, the programming interface that developers will use to create services for the high-tech eyewear. At the same time, Google revealed the high-tech spectacle's specs, which include a 5-megapixel camera, a bone conduction transducer for audio, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and 12GB of usable memory.