You could say the exact same things about the United States in the 1800s. Part of the US expansion and industrialization came about through stealing British inventions and running with the ideas.

The seeds of innovation were there earlier, though. The rifle industry comes to mind - I remember reading that innovative rifles with better range played some part in colonial militias' success in the US revolutionary war. One could argue that was more craftsmanship than innovation, but there's a strong connection between making things well and making better things, and China isn't famous for quality goods either.

"One could argue that was more craftsmanship than innovation, but there's a strong connection between making things well and making better things, and China isn't famous for quality goods either."

That's because they weren't taught in our textbooks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_inventions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technolo...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinoiserie

Gunpowder, paper & printing, magnetic compass... more important than Internet in their times. I wouldn't call their culture lacking innovation.

You are right. I think most people should know this. Rip off happens everywhere. Just that china has more people and the probability of it happening there is higher than other places.

Not in the way it is organized and encouraged in China. There are factories there that specialize in rip offs, companies that specialize in finding something invented/created elsewhere and reverse engineering.

Not to say that the US didn't do it, or that Japan was also well known in the 70's for much the same thing, but to say that it is only because China has "more people" and more "probability" is misleading. The practice is widespread and encouraged, not just by their culture, but also indirectly by their government.

Don't forget toilet paper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper

Must be the most innovative discovery of all times

Japan followed the same story line initially.

Camera manufacture started as either junk, or as cheaper copies of German (Leica) bodies and lenses.

Car manufacture was in one case initially intertwined with licensed designs from the UK.

In both these cases, Japan grew to become the leader in cameras and amongst the leaders in automobiles.

The interesting thing is whether China can do the same thing with computers, but as software has such a cultural dependence, I highly doubt it. Aside from Matz, has Japan even produced any really notable software or operating systems?

Nintendo's doing pretty well, and the DS and Wii can be considered innovative. I don't think their games aren't software in the way that you mean, but they've broken new ground there many times, too.

> Aside from Matz, has Japan even produced any really notable software or operating systems?

The NES, the MSX, The FM-Towns, Sega Master System, Megadrive, Dreamcast, the SNES, Mario, Contra, Starfox, Golden Axe, Thunderblade, Outrun, The PSP, The Playstation, PS2, PS3.

That's just in one industry (gaming). Of all of those the only ones that weren't significant out of Japan were the FM-Towns and MSX. The MSX was the biggest single threat to 8-bit computers in the early to mid 80s not because of it's power, but because it was a licenced standard (with OS software admittedly written by Microsoft, thank goodness they never got a hold on the OS market!)

> has Japan even produced any really notable software or operating systems?

Ruby

You'd be amazed by how little it takes to motivate someone.

To be fair, innovation is not all that useful, unless you can market it.

And marketing, only one country is known to do well. And one company, specially.

It is not a lack of motivation. This device was built ground up itself.