Google (meaning Google.com, the search engine) is a flagrant copyright violator and the only reason they weren't shut down is that they became too important too

Google (meaning Google.com, the search engine) is a flagrant copyright violator and the only reason they weren't shut down is that they became too important too fast for the judges to be willing to rule anything other than "Yes fair use works for everything they do, please don't hurt me for breaking the internet". Many smaller groups were shut down by Lady Justice for behavior very similar to Google's.