That doesn't excuse it. You can make the same argument about Microsoft, who apparently thought it would be more profitable to engage in illegal monopolistic practices and then fight the ensuing legal battles than to operate legally.

Now I concede that I may not understand defensive patents very well, but if any company is able to document an "invention" in order to demonstrate prior art and drive away patent trolls it would be Google. And they could set a nice precedent by taking exactly that tack.

Just because you are able to do something doesn't mean that you should do it. And when you do bad things just because you are able, you are evil.

I'm hoping someone sheds some light on more than meets the eye here.