Google insists it couldn't have been British. Excuse me?

How curious. The Government's review into IP and growth may have been set up by mistake, or at least on a false premise. On announcing the review last November, Prime Minister David Cameron said something quite curious. Cameron explained that the review was a response to Google's concerns... "The founders of Google have said …

[Is it me?]

What is Cameron on...

And Tony the Blair for that matter, both seem to think throwing names like Microsoft and Google around the place are a universal panacea for something, though what they don't seem to be able to get a grip on.

Somehow I doubt there are many, if any politicians in the UK who actually understand IT, look who Francis Maud has to advise him.

DC likes Google, well so do lots of us but don't see what the point of sucking up to them is, nor do I see any benefit to UK PLC.

Totally agree that UK makes it difficult for innovative start-ups to grow an flourish, but mainly that's finance, ARM & Autonomy show it's possible, but an awful lot will get borged by US companies with better financial backing, and UK PLC is much happier selling out that growing a business over the longer term. in fact UK PLC is crap at supporting itself, to push more UK companies onto the world stage.

Copyright is a red herring, and the easier it is for Google to borg information, the better their revenues.

[Magnus_Pym]

I for one...

... would be glad if Google could not be set up in this country.

[Mike Shepherd]

"...Google...could never have started...in Britain"

Maybe you could say the same of Al Capone. His was another business based on the work of others unable to enforce their rights.

[myhandle]

Copyright? WTF???

Copyright is not the problem. It's the patent system. Creative development is not hinder through the inability to literally take someone else codes, it's more than todays copyright's are mostly BS based on rearrangements of existing code and you can only afford the mountain of lawyers to play the game if you are already huge. Cameron... Keep software "patents" out of the way and forget about copyright from an economic perspective. If you want to take about preservation of culture, that's something else. Why did the government extend copyright to 100 years for the music industry? However, that has little connection with small startups.

[Mike Shepherd]

English

Is there an English version of this post?

[Anonymous Coward]

or was it because Larry and Serge are American?

Americans moving to the UK to set up their company would have just been weird.

leaving aside the fact the UK is becoming and un-imaginitive police state, shaped by politics almost as stupid as the US, hampered by an expensive broadband infrastructure, convoluted and painful business regulation and suffering from a massive brain drain it's small wonder that very few players on the world stage are incubated in my old home country.

it's easier to innovate - both culturally and practically - in countries like the US, Australia, Canada or even Eire and South Africa so it's small wonder your politicians are looking around for someone to blame while not doing what they should do and investigating the 800lb gorilla who is busy ignoring UK privacy laws and when caught doesn't even get a slap on the wrist

[BristolBachelor]

Google in UK?

Nah, they'd set-up in Ireland. Much better for corporation tax there.

Copyright? That only comes into it because it makes it awkward for Google to copy everything and serve it up to people without paying, in order to make them visit google's ad sites.

[Havin_it]

Metaphor Police, nobody move

"...the elephant in the room ... is the 800lb gorilla."

I always wondered why they'd never been photographed together.

Thanks Andrew, that made my day.

[Ken Hagan]

When google set up...

...their only product was a search engine.

Copyright didn't become an issue until they bought YouTube and started making money out of serving ads alongside brazen copyright violations. (Frankly I'm still surprised that they've got away with this.)

[Tom 260]

Culture of high risk investment...

Yes, and look what happened to the banks in the US with their high risk subprimes...

[penguin slapper]

wtf

Nah, they'd set-up in Ireland.

They're already registered in Ireland for tax purposes - Google avoid vast sums of tax in the UK this way (as do all the other tech giants).

America has a long tradition of corporations using public money to fund R&D and then wrapping the results up in patents and copyright and profiting for years.

The UK would jump on a successful back and seek to tax it out of existence but wouldn't help at all in the initial setup and growth.

Google wouldn't get started in the UK because no one here is encouraged enough to come up with good ideas and on the rare occasion, despite the oppression, misery and apathy, that someone does come up with a good idea, they bugger off over seas to take advantage of the cheap labour rates at the first opportunity.

Yes, Mr. Dyson, I'm looking at you.

Cameron is out of his depth on this, as on most other subjects.

[Jason Bloomberg]

Viva la Freetard?

Isn't it actually good that Google wouldn't have started up in the UK, that we have more respect for what people produce and make a living from?

Not to say that what the UK has is perfect by a long shot but it seems far better than the, strangely conflicting, situation in the US where at one extreme you can buy something but not do anything with it and at the other exploit others' work with impunity.

[Anonymous Coward]

... and if it hadn't been for you pesky kids

Phorm would have been a great (sort of) British success story.

"our copyright system is not as friendly to this sort of innovation"

i.e. the law isn't bendable to the whims of corporations. Unlike our politicians.

[pixl97]

Craptent publishers try to kill golden goose again.

Craptent: Crap content that publishers value at gold, demand full control of distribution rights, and see government protection of the revenue stream on, forever.

If you make your living selling craptent, here's my advice. GET OUT NOW. Why, that fancy multi-gigahertz you're likely sitting behind can produce craptent too. Not only make it, they can copy your craptent and distribute it to every one else in the world. Your shiny little bits aren't precious and aren't special, once they are out of your system and on to the 'consumers' they can be replicated indefinitely and become effectively worthless.

What people are willing to pay for is services that are convenient. iPod+iTunes store and Netflix for example. That combo right there has dropped my desire to pirate to zero. There is so much low cost craptent that I no longer feel the need to consume (or copy) expensive craptent. We are awash in so much craptent that the value comes in being able to find what you want in this sea of shit.

This is were google comes in. You may not like them, but if you use their tools correctly you they can connect you and your customer. No, you don't have to exploit Goo's ability to do that, but guess what, your competitor is, have fun watching your customer base erode. Ya, 20 years ago most businesses competed at a local or regional scale. Not any more, these days the widget maker right down the road from me competes with megacorps in China. If they tried to compete on price alone, they'd be dead in the water. Service is where the money is in the future, producing bits that everyone else can copy is a dead end.

This is only a taste of what the digital revolution will bring.

Craptent is dead. Long live Craptent!

[Mme.Mynkoff]

I see what you're doing there...

It's very clever!

[JimC]

@craptent

Ye, I think you're right on the money there in one aspect at least: the digital revolution is likely to result in oceans of crap content.

I fear that the last 50 years will turn out to have been a golden age for high quality popular music which will not be repeated because there will no longer be an infrastructure to support full time professional artists. The same raw talent will still exist of course, but only a tiny minority, probably paid by wealthy patrons, will actually be able to make a living working full time and thus be able to hone their skills sufficiently.

Welcome to your grave new world...

[Chad H.]

I'd like to think....

I'd like to think that the reason why google wouldn't have succeeded in Britian is we're far too sensible. Google's business plan seems to be: 1. Make something 2. ??????????? 3. profit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Some days I get up earlier than usual...

...just so I can despise the likes of Google and Cameron a bit longer that day.

[Anonymous Coward]

"I don't have trouble identifying with such people,"

"Some of my best friends are bl..."

[Magnus_Pym]

Car analogy

Imagine it were legal for a small manufacturer to use existing running gear and graft on a body that looked similar to a car designed and built by a large corporation. How awful, it would be like theft, it would be like stealing the brain child of the designer. It would certainly stifle innovation. I for one am glad that could never happen here in good old blighty.

[Charles Manning]

If the Brits made it....

it would leak oil. Until the internet leaks oil the Brits will be mystified.

Just about all great Brit brands have been bought out by their competitors and will probably make more money under new ownership. Perhaps that will one day happen for ARM too.

[Anonymous Coward]

we have a criminal lack of funding

or is that a lack of criminal funding?

[Savvo]

What am I missing?

Surely Google didn't set up in the UK because Page and Brin lived in California when they started it? If they'd been doing their PhDs here they'd have started the company here.

[codemonkey]

Fiddle me this...

Nuff said

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/fiddling-while-rome-burns.html

[Anonymous Coward]

UK Copyright Law

It was all OK until you wrote ' "I don't believe IP is the problem," said Alison Wenham, representing independent music companies.'

In recent years PRS (that's Protection Racket Society formerly known as Performing Rights Society) has been nudging the boundaries of the law on copyright for some years, charging garages license fees for their employees to listen to radio on the grounds that a customer might drive in with the radio on and the window down, kennel owners for putting the radio on for their dogs to listen to, employees of firms to listen to talk radio stations on earphones, charities to perform Handel's Messiah to get money for their good cause (sure - Handel got the entire royalties personally), one-person companies working at home to listen to the radio, ad nauseam...... All of this is on the basis of copyright law - or at least PRS' interpretation of it.

If this is what is meant by UK copyright law making for an uncertain business environment I couldn't agree more. With that kind of copyright law - who would want to do business here?

[JohnG]

Copyright?

At the time that Google were starting out, UK copyright law required plaintiffs to demonstrate their losses if they wanted to win a case and was therefore, considerably more attractive to the likes of Google than that of the USA where plaintiffs simply pull large numbers from thin air. UK copyright law only became more stringent after US media figures entertained key politicians, who then cobbled together some crappy legislation.

[Dropper]

We lack sufficient penguins

Some people might say taxes, others copyright, but clearly anything Google or the Government say is designed to mislead and distract everyone from the truth. That truth is simple and yet brutal. Britain does not contain sufficient penguins to power Google's generators. Presumably in the US they don't have such supply issues, although I'm not sure that speaks well of that country's animal rights laws and their zoo's penguin redundancy/overcapacity.

[CN Hill]

Google Books

Google Books are an outrage. They take works which they know perfectly well are copyright, scan them, and make them as available as on a pirate bit torrent site.

[Syntax Error]

"I'm a lone(ly) creator/bloke"

One Anonymous Coward bitching about another. LOL

[Anonymous Coward]

Copyright isn't a word Google understands

Since Google have always ignored copyright, and have perpetrated the biggest copyright breach in history with their Google Books project, I don't see what difference it makes what the law is in any country.

Basically, they're claiming that the UK government would have done a better job of enforcing the law than the American one; I think the evidence is against such a claim. UK law is there to protect the rich, not punish them.

[Anonymous Coward]

Was anyone reminded...

...of this?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/12/hawking_british_and_alive/

[Anonymous Coward]

The truth is ...

... while the politicos have a much delayed vision about the importance of intellectual property it is, unfortunately, Whitehall that calls the shots.

And unfortunately more still UK civil servants don't really like or are comfortable with fast pace of change (unless of course it has to do with pensions, annual leave, relocation allowances, career path structures or celeries (oops I mean salaries - silly mee!) in which case see you in high court tomorrow rules?

I guess we can say that Google's observation about the UK holds true for Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, ... and basically any organisation that needs to retain ownership of its intellectual property.

Maybe on Maslow's triangle IP in the UK featues about the third tear down?