I agree with you, but "the world is better off for having search engines" is not a valid excuse.
As you mentioned copyright, world is better off for having piracy too.
As you mentioned copyright, world is better off for having piracy too.
A valid excuse for not infringing copyright? What is the action that needs to be excused here? And if the sites don't want to be indexed by the search engines, why do they go out of their way to be indexed by search engines?
What exactly is the problem that needs solving?
Fair enough, it is never a good defense, but in this case it is not meant as a defense as much as a reason against changing laws from what it currently is. There was no action to be defended until Australia changed their laws to something which makes search engines non feasible and to me that is a good reason why the law should not have been made.