London, March 7:

Google rejected accusations that it had a “cavalier” attitude to copyright, after a scathing attack by Microsoft.

Microsoft’s lawyer Tom Rubin claimed Google was unfairly profiting from other people’s work and taking a loose approach to the legal rights of copyright holders. “Companies that create no content of their own, and make money solely on the backs of other people’s content, are raking in billions through advertising revenue and IPOs,” he said in a speech.

“Google takes the position that everything may be freely copied unless the copyright owner notifies Google against it to stop.” Rubin, who oversees copyright and intellectual property issues for MS.