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 submitted a proposed class action alongside author Scott Turow and his firm, S.C.R.I.B.E. The complaint was filed on July 10 in a federal court in New York, alleging that Google copied millions of copyrighted books and journal articles without authorization during the development and training of Gemini models.
According to the plaintiffs, Google accessed materials through Google Books, Google Play Books, and Google Scholar. The publishers and authors had provided works to facilitate search, sales, and research functions, the complaint states. However, the filing claims these arrangements did not give Google the right to reproduce the content for commercial AI training purposes. The lawsuit also accuses Google of utilizing web-scraped datasets that included content from pirate sites and subscription services behind paywalls.
Google faces four allegations outlined in the 57-page complaint. Three of these claims involve illegal reproduction through Google services, web scraping, and the training or development of Gemini. The fourth charge references the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, alleging that Google removed or altered copyright management information, such as 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 allegations focus on Gemini’s training data
The proposed class encompasses owners of registered U.S. copyrights in books and journal articles. To qualify, books must possess an International Standard Book Number, and articles must have a Digital Object Identifier or International Standard Serial Number. This definition pertains to works that Google allegedly copied from its services, downloaded via web scraping, or reproduced during the development of Gemini. Eligibility is further limited to works registered within specific deadlines outlined in the complaint.
The complaint cites works from Hachette, Cengage, and Elsevier as examples of the alleged copying. It covers fiction, textbooks, and scholarly publications among the impacted categories. Additionally, the filing references internal Google assessments concerning legal risks associated with publisher-supplied books. One such assessment reportedly warned of potential fines ranging from $10 billion to $100 billion, according to the plaintiffs. No court ruling has been made on these internal records.
Plaintiffs seek monetary damages and transparency
The plaintiffs are seeking statutory damages or actual damages along with profits attributable to any proven infringement. They additionally request an injunction, legal expenses, and a jury trial. Their proposed order would compel Google to disclose the materials and methods used in training Gemini. The complaint also seeks court supervision over the destruction of unauthorized copies under Google’s control. The total amount of damages requested has not been specified.
This New York case follows an earlier effort by Hachette and Cengage to join separate copyright litigation involving Google AI in California. The Association of American Publishers noted that the new lawsuit preserves claims outside the scope of that proceeding. The current case also involves 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 violate federal copyright law and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.