IP: Intellectual Property.
Even as it breaks off into a new corporate structure, overseen by newly created parent company Alphabet, Google seems unlikely to learn how to properly handle those particular two letters any time soon.
If you’re involved and interested in technology – and who among us isn’t nowadays – the reason for the restructure is an intriguing story in its own right.
But in terms of creative rights and intellectual property, what will Google look like in this brave new world? Not a whole lot different than most of us associate with the old Google, as it turns out.
The Google branch of Alphabet will comprise:
- Search
- Advertising
- YouTube
- Android
- Maps
With the exception of Maps, these are all digital properties that play a pivotal role in online piracy.
In its search results, Google continues to serve up sites filled with unlicensed content. To compound that negative effect, its advertising network helps to place ads on those same sites, providing them with a cut of the profits. That’s a multi-million dollar industry, in case they’ve forgotten consecutive reports from the Digital Citizens Alliance in recent years.
The same is true of YouTube, which does at least remove illegal uploads for rights holders but rarely keeps them down for long, and still supports piracy in less direct ways. Throw in the latest repulsive ad-supported content controversy and you have a platform that is rarely on the right side of legal content distribution.
Finally, Android is a mobile melange of the effects above, bringing Google’s more obviously pro-piracy platforms to smartphone users around the world. Just witness the anticipation over Popcorn Time’s arrival on Android to understand the increasing influence of mobile devices on illegal content consumption.
So, despite plenty of its more adventurous and innovative business units spinning off, under Alphabet Google will still be the same strange frenemy that it has always been to creators.
On Larry Page’s list of things that will excite the new company as it moves forward, “getting more ambitious things done” and “taking the long-term view” take the top two spots. That’s great, because it’s exactly what we’ve been encouraging Google to go after for years, in terms of protecting creative rights.
With greater ambition to present only legitimate, licensed content on its web properties, Google can easily bring its significant engineering talents to bear on its piracy problem. The long-term perspective makes this even more desirable, not least for Google, which stands to gain plenty of subscribers for its various content plays – think app store sales and YouTube Music Key – if it can move consumers away from content theft sites.
Given Google’s lethargic nature towards piracy in the past and its generally scattershot approach to providing content on its platforms, it’s hard to see this new company structure making much difference to the issues covered above.
Nonetheless, as Alphabet focuses on its wider mission and considers the importance of the 26 letters at its disposal, perhaps I and P will find some way to get together and force themselves into that exciting “long-term view.”
The post Owned by Alphabet, Google Still Doesn’t Understand Two Letters: IP appeared first on PrivacyNet.
