Sometimes the US makes it very hard to defend its legacy as the most liberal democracy and free market on earth. And sometimes Google makes it impossible to retain faith in its corporate motto ‘Don’t Be Evil’. The Google Book Settlement, which is due to be heard this month [October], is an example of over-reach seldom seen in the history of American jurisprudence.

The purpose of the settlement at first appears to be not entirely unfair. Google seeks to digitise books in order to make them searchable. Most everyone would agree that this is a noble intention, and a valuable extension of Google’s search function.