DON DODGE: Hi.
I'm Don Dodge, and this is Google Root Access.
Today, I'm going to do a show on viewer questions.
I did a show a few weeks ago about, can
startup ideas be stolen?
It generated lots of questions, so I have a few
here today that I'd like to cover.
The first question comes from Nikolai Lind.
And he says, do you guys agree that software
patent system is broken?
What do you think about New Zealand's ban on software
patents, and should other countries copy this approach?
Well, I need to preface my remarks by saying that these
are my personal views, not Google's views.
But yes, I would agree that the software patent system in
the US is broken, particularly for software.
There are lots of patents issued that
should never be issued.
The biggest problem is patent trolls.
Patent trolls are institutions that acquire patents, but they
aren't real companies, so they call them
non-practicing entities.
They acquire patents and then turn around and sue startups.
They sue startups because startups don't have a lot of
money and can't defend themselves, so
they're easy prey.
Then after winning several of these suits against startups,
they start going after bigger and bigger companies because
they have some case law behind them.
So yes, it is a big problem.
And there are organizations in the US--
the Application Developers Alliance is one, the
Electronic Freedom Foundation is another--
that are trying to fight these things.
I'm not familiar with New Zealand's ban of patents and
how that works.
But not all patents are bad, so I think it's dangerous to
totally ban patents.
Patent reform is probably the better approach.
Our second question comes from Keith Trinka, and he says,
what do you guys think about a startup versus a skunkworks
type inside of a larger company?
Would you expect one to be more innovative or successful
than the other?
That's a good question.
Innovation doesn't matter where it starts.
The bigger question is, once that innovation is done, where
will it be more successful, in the context of a startup or in
the context of a larger company?
My opinion is that startups are all in every day.
So they're taking big risks.
They're totally committed to this idea, and they innovate
and make it happen.
When it comes time to take that innovation to market,
again, they're totally committed and all in, so the
chances that they're going to be successful
are probably better.
Innovation can happen at a large company.
And there are skunkworks and research labs and things like
that where innovation happens, but those innovations are
typically focused on the core business.
So they're longer-term projects or innovations to a
core feature or product of the company.
And as long as those line up well, then that can be very,
very innovative and seamlessly added to the product and be
very successful.
Where it hasn't been successful is--
probably the biggest example is Xerox PARC.
Xerox PARC had one of the most famous research labs in the
world that developed things like the graphical user
interface and the mouse and all sorts of other amazing
innovations, laser printers, I believe.
And those innovations didn't line up with the corporate
goals or the corporate product strategy.
So all that great innovation went to waste and never saw
the light of day.
So I think innovation can happen anywhere, in a startup
or in a skunkworks in a large company.
But taking that innovation to market is where it falls down
and where startups are better than large companies.
Another question came from The Novice Mind.
Interesting username.
What advice do you give startups for dealing with the
legal minefield, such as copyrighted user content or
other legally concerning areas that can
appear from user content?
Another good question.
You may recall I was vice president of Napster, the
music company, and we had a few issues with user content.
However, in that case, it was not user-generated content, it
was user-contributed content, and there's a big difference.
User-generated content is generated by the user and,
typically, has no copyright on it.
Sometimes, however, a user-generated content piece
will include something that is copyrighted, and that's where
you run into trouble.
But there are safe harbor areas.
There's the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that covers
copyrights, and it gives safe harbor to software companies
who are, like, discussion boards or sharing places and
that kind of thing, where you're not responsible for
what the users put on the site.
There are procedures called takedown notices, where anyone
who sees copyrighted information that they own can
notify you, as the site owner, and say,
hey, that's my content.
It's violating my copyright.
Take it down.
And then you have to investigate that and take it
down within a certain number of days.
So as long as you do that, you're in the open and not
liable for any copyright infringement.
If there's rampant copyright infringement, and that's all
you do, such as the case in Napster, then you're going to
get vicarious copyright infringement and aiding and
abetting copyright infringement, and that's where
you get into big trouble.
So as long as your site or app has significant legal use and
can be used for other things, and there's just a small
amount of copyright infringement, you can handle
that with a safe harbor and deleting the copyright
information.
If not, then you have larger problems.
I'm not a lawyer, so I don't give legal advice.
That's just an opinion and based on my experience.
All right.
So keep these viewer questions coming.
They're very interesting, and I'll try to answer as many of
them as I can in future shows.
So thank you, and join us next time.
But before you go, I have a special offer for you, for
Google Root Access users, viewers.
We have a $2,000 credit on Google Cloud.
So if you're developing an application that uses a cloud
backend, I encourage you to try Google Cloud, and here's
$2,000 for free to try it.
The information on how to get that credit is appearing on
your screen.
Thank you very much, and see you next time.