Moving forward toward two (so far) lawsuits served it by major publishing trade groups (the Authors Guild and the American Association of Publishers), Google seems calmly, supremely confident. It is astounding to pause and reflect on what is at stake here. And Google seems to be going out of its way to raise the stakes.

A Google legal counsel named Macgillivray (first name not given along with published quotes) is quoted in a subscription WSJ article as follows: "As long as we are going to be sued, we welcome the opportunity for the court to make it more clear to the publishers that this is not something they get to veto," Mr. Macgillivray said. Web search and book scanning "are essentially the same," he said. "...Both uses are fair and don't require a copyright holder's permission for information to be found." Web search and book scanning are the same … CEO Eric Schmidt made the same connection in a recent WSJ editorial (also subscription-only), so it is apparently a deliberate and official talking point in Google's spin efforts. Linking Google's core product with a shaky legal case is breathtakingly bold. A Stanford law professor named Mark Lemley summed it up in the same article: "The consequences of a loss for Google are enormous. If the publishers were to actually prevail in this lawsuit, I think it would be essentially impossible to maintain a search engine."