With all the litigation brought against Google, it seems that tough licensing isn't exactly their friend. That combined with their longterm friendliness with "ground-up" projects makes perfect sense as to why they recently donated a good chunk of change to Creative Commons. Creative Commons is a non-proft organization and type of licensing that encourages written works and other things to be shared more readily, while still protecting those who created it.
Google's donation of $30,000 is probably small change to the Internet giant, but nevertheless is a good show of faith for a company that relies so much on free works.