[humanrebar]

> They lift content from sites, often without their permission...

To be fair on this point, if the salient content is facts (for example, the expected weight of a healthy cocker spaniel), then the originating site didn't "own" the content anyway.

They certainly have copyright on the presentation of the facts, but that just obligates Google to run the original content through some sort of algorithm (or something) to make sure they're not violating copyright.

[platz]

The issue is in how the laws are defined, not in any moral concepts of fairness. In court they can always claim that the consumer doesn't have to use their service, they have choice to use a competitor. The problem is that in the internet age, it is not in controlling supply but in effectively unlimited demand created by combination of zero marginal cost to add customers and network effects of the internet.