NEW YORK / RankWire.AI / – Three leading U.S. publishing companies have initiated legal action against Google, accusing the tech giant of copyright violations related to its Gemini artificial intelligence platform. Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, and Elsevier have filed a proposed class action alongside author Scott Turow and his firm, S.C.R.I.B.E. The complaint was lodged on July 10 in a federal court in New York, claiming Google unlawfully copied millions of copyrighted books and journal articles during the development and training of Gemini models.
According to the plaintiffs, Google sourced material via Google Books, Google Play Books, and Google Scholar. These works were provided by publishers and authors to support search functions, sales, and research activities, the lawsuit states. However, the complaint asserts that these arrangements did not authorize Google to reproduce the works for commercial artificial intelligence training. The lawsuit also accuses Google of utilizing web-scraped datasets that included content from pirate sites and subscription-based services protected by paywalls.
Google faces four allegations detailed in the 57-page complaint. Three of these claims concern illegal reproduction via Google services, web scraping, and the training or development of Gemini. The fourth involves violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, with accusations that Google removed or altered copyright management information, including author names, ownership details, and publication data. As of July 15, the court had yet to rule on these claims or grant class-action certification.
Four Allegations Focus on Gemini’s Training Data
The proposed class includes owners of registered U.S. copyrights in books and journal articles. Eligible works must have an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) for books or a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) or International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) for articles. This definition encompasses works that Google allegedly copied from its services, downloaded via web scraping, or reproduced during the development of Gemini. Eligibility is also limited to works registered within the deadlines specified in the complaint.
The lawsuit cites examples from Hachette, Cengage, and Elsevier of the alleged copying. It covers a range of materials, including fiction, textbooks, and scholarly articles. The filing also references internal Google evaluations concerning potential legal risks associated with publisher-provided books. One such assessment reportedly warned of possible fines between $10 billion and $100 billion, according to the plaintiffs. The court has not issued any rulings regarding these internal documents.
Plaintiffs Demand Compensation and Transparency
The plaintiffs are seeking statutory damages or actual damages plus any profits gained from the alleged infringement. They also request an injunction, recovery of legal costs, and a jury trial. Their proposed order would compel Google to disclose the materials and methods used to train Gemini. Additionally, the lawsuit requests court supervision over the destruction of any unauthorized copies under Google’s control. The total damages sought have not been specified in the filing.
This New York case follows an earlier effort by Hachette and Cengage to incorporate similar copyright claims into an ongoing Google AI litigation in California. The Association of American Publishers indicated that the new lawsuit preserves claims outside the scope of the prior class action. The current suit includes Elsevier, Turow, and S.C.R.I.B.E., alongside the two publishers. It asks the New York court to determine whether Google’s Gemini training practices and data collection activities violate federal copyright law and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.