Hello-

Just read your Wired piece Google's Tough Call:
http://lookleap.com/wired.com/a4

You say:

"Indeed, their claims about Google represent the biggest landgrab in the history of the Internet, and if taken seriously, will chill a wide range of innovation. Because if the AAP is right, it's not Google Print that's illegal. The outlaw is Google itself - and Yahoo!, and MSN Search, and the Internet Archive, and every other technology that makes knowledge useful in a digital age."

"Think about Google's core business: It copies whatever content it finds on the Web and puts that content in an index. It doesn't ask the copyright owner first, though it does exclude content if asked. Thus, Google wants to do for books exactly what it has always done for the Web. Why should one be illegal and the other different?"

Which suggests that indexing the web is protected only by fair use. That if Google loses its fair use battle with print publishers, it will no longer be able to index the web.

However, the DMCA includes sections specifically intended to allow Google, Yahoo, etc. to index and cache online information.

Please see:
the DMCA protects search engine page caching, indexing, etc.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/8358

And:
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act
http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/band.html

You might also find this interesting:
copyright law lets libraries distribute Twilight Zone material in full
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/8359

Cheers-

Sid