Oh, they are trying, but how sincere are they?

There is an interesting body of commentary on Google's behavior (on taxes in this instance) at Tax Justice Network. Example: http://goo.gl/8kkOH (note: Google cooperates with local tax agencies to catch other tax 'evaders'...)
The same applies to Google's efforts to re-create copyright. They have understated their influence from the beginning. Most nations/people have no way they can defend themselves against a corporation like Google. This understating is obtuse, to put it mildly. I'd rather call it cheating and hypocritical. Their reaction to a German proposal for an Internet Copyright speaks volumes: http://goo.gl/G3FMa. (notice that some are taken in and that the proposal was weakened before it passed legislature). Google is certainly trying to address problems with copyrighted material, but not enough. Their algorithm is still too thick to catch the 2.5 million breaches of Copyright Law that they are being told about every week. I'd surmise that most of those would be mentioned by organizations (the RIAA for instance) so the question is valid how much more breaches are missed by others, i.e. the small-time artist who has created something.

Last (but not least): a corporation that is able to consider building a 'World Brain' should have no problem creating a system where copyright is protected in a legal fashion and royalties are paid in an equally legal fashion. Of course it is their right to prefer not paying taxes or royalties, as it is their right to use arguments for that that don't convince a large part of the world. I'm certainly not convinced of their 'well-meaning'. Google has all the traits of an organization that has had it too much their way. I'd think that is a danger to us (consumers, producers of copyrighted materials) and to Google as well (arrogance and a tendency to underestimate its own might tend to be punished, in the long run).
So I think Eric Schmidt should sing a more modest tune, for his own (companies) sake as well as that of others.