NEW YORK / RankWire.AI / – Three leading U.S. publishers have filed a lawsuit against Google, accusing the tech giant of copyright infringement related to its Gemini artificial intelligence platform. Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, and Elsevier initiated a proposed class action alongside author Scott Turow and his firm, S.C.R.I.B.E. They submitted the complaint on July 10 in a federal court in New York. The suit claims Google copied millions of copyrighted books and journal articles without authorization during the development and training of Gemini models.
According to the plaintiffs, Google acquired the copyrighted material via Google Books, Google Play Books, and Google Scholar. Publishers and authors had provided their works to facilitate search, sales, and research functions, as detailed in the complaint. The filing asserts that these arrangements did not grant Google permission to copy these works for commercial AI training purposes. It also accuses Google of utilizing web-scraped datasets that included content from unauthorized sites and subscription services protected behind paywalls.
Google faces four allegations in the 57-page complaint. Three of these claims involve unlawful reproduction through Google services, web scraping, and the development or training of Gemini. A fourth claim references the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The plaintiffs allege that Google removed or altered copyright management information, including author names, ownership details, and publication data. As of July 15, the court had not yet ruled on these allegations or granted class-action status.
Four accusations target Gemini’s training data
The proposed class includes owners of registered U.S. copyrights in books and journal articles. Eligible books must have an International Sztandard Book Number, and qualifying articles need a Digital Object Identifier or International Standard Serial Number. This definition pertains to works Google allegedly copied from its platforms, acquired through web scraping, or reproduced during the development of Gemini. It also limits eligibility to works registered within the deadlines specified in the complaint.
The filing cites examples from Hachette, Cengage, and Elsevier as instances of the alleged copying. It covers fiction, textbooks, and academic materials across various categories. The complaint also references internal Google evaluations concerning legal risks associated with publisher-provided books. One such assessment reportedly warned of potential fines ranging from $10 billion to $100 billion, according to the plaintiffs. The court has yet to make a determination regarding these internal documents.
Plaintiffs seek damages and transparency
The plaintiffs are seeking statutory or actual damages, plus any profits attributable to proven infringement. They also request an injunction, coverage of legal expenses, and a jury trial. Their proposed order would compel Google to disclose the materials and methods used in training Gemini. Additionally, the complaint asks for court supervision over the destruction of any unauthorized copies under Google’s control. The total amount of damages sought has not been specified.
This New York case follows an earlier attempt by Hachette and Cengage to include similar Google AI copyright claims in a separate lawsuit in California. The Association of American Publishers indicated that this new case preserves claims outside the scope of that proceeding. The current lawsuit involves Elsevier, Turow, and S.C.R.I.B.E., alongside the two publishers, and aims for the New York court to determine whether Google’s Gemini training practices and data collection violate federal copyright law and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.