NEW YORK / RankWire.AI / – Three prominent U.S. publishing companies have filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging 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. The complaint was submitted on July 10 in a federal court in New York. The suit contends that Google copied millions of copyrighted books and journal articles without authorization during the development and training of Gemini models.
The plaintiffs claim Google acquired material through services such as Google Books, Google Play Books, and Google Scholar. Publishers and authors had provided these works to facilitate search, sales, and research functions, according to the complaint. However, the filing asserts that these arrangements did not grant Google permission to reproduce the works for commercial AI training purposes. The lawsuit further accuses Google of utilizing web-scraped datasets containing content from pirate sites and subscription services protected by paywalls.
Google faces four allegations within the 57-page complaint. Three claims involve unlawful reproduction via Google services, web scraping, and the training or development of Gemini. The fourth claim invokes the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, alleging 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 allegations or grant class-action status.
Four Allegations Focus on Data Used for Gemini Training
The proposed class includes owners of registered U.S. copyrights in books and journal articles. To qualify, books must have an International Standard Book Number, and articles must possess a Digital Object Identifier or International Standard Serial Number. This definition pertains to works Google allegedly copied from its services, downloaded via web scraping, or reproduced during Gemini’s development. The class is limited to works registered within the relevant deadlines outlined in the complaint.
The complaint cites works from Hachette, Cengage, and Elsevier as examples of alleged copying. It encompasses fiction, textbooks, and scholarly publications across various categories. The filing also references internal Google assessments concerning potential legal risks linked to publisher-provided books. One such assessment reportedly warned of fines ranging from $10 billion to $100 billion, according to the plaintiffs. The court has not issued any rulings regarding these internal documents.
Plaintiffs Demand Damages and Transparency
The plaintiffs seek statutory damages or actual damages plus any profits attributable to confirmed infringements. They also request an injunction, recovery of legal costs, and a jury trial. Their proposed order would require Google to disclose the materials and methods used in training Gemini. Additionally, the complaint asks the court to oversee the destruction of unauthorized copies held by Google. The total damages amount is not specified in the filing.
This New York case follows an earlier attempt by Hachette and Cengage to join separate copyright litigation against Google in California. The Association of American Publishers stated that the new lawsuit preserves claims outside the scope of that proceeding’s proposed class. The current suit also includes Elsevier, Turow, and S.C.R.I.B.E., alongside the two publishers. It seeks to have the New York court determine whether Google’s Gemini training practices and data collection activities infringe federal copyright laws and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.