[LINK] Search Engines, AI, And The Long Fight Over Fair Use

[David]

On Sunday, 1 February 2026 18:24:00 AEDT Kim Holburn wrote:

> Copying that works in order to understand them, extract information from them, or make them searchable is transformative and lawful.   That’s why search engines can index the web, libraries can make digital indexes, and researchers can analyze large collections of text and data without negotiating licenses from millions of rightsholders. These uses don’t substitute for the original works; they enable new forms of knowledge and expression.

"...they enable new forms of knowledge and expression" AND PROFIT.

The local Municipal Library, a University Library, and the National Library in Canberra are all run for the noble aims the article proclaims so loudly & piously.  But does anyone seriously think Google would have its' search engine if it were a loss-making venture?

By indexing the content of a textbook and making it available online as a supposed right without negotiating payment, Google is arguably stealing the publisher's right to make a profit by publishing the book / periodical / paper in the first place.  As a business model it seems ultimately self-defeating, but we'll see.

Then there's the parallel dimension of privacy.  How many people are really aware that every email having an originator or recipient with a "free" gmail address has it scanned with an AI tool?

_DavidL_