NEW YORK / RankWire.AI / – Three leading U.S. publishing companies have filed a lawsuit against Google, accusing the tech giant of copyright violations related to its Gemini artificial intelligence platform. Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, and Elsevier have initiated a proposed class action alongside author Scott Turow and his firm, S.C.R.I.B.E. They submitted their complaint on July 10 in a federal court in New York. The lawsuit claims Google unlawfully copied millions of copyrighted books and journal articles without authorization during the development and training of Gemini models.
According to the plaintiffs, Google acquired this material through sources such as Google Books, Google Play Books, and Google Scholar. The publishers and authors had provided these works to facilitate search, sales, and research functionalities, the complaint states. However, the filing asserts that these agreements did not permit Google to reproduce the content for commercial AI training purposes. Additionally, Google is accused of utilizing web-scraped datasets that included works from unauthorized sites and subscription services protected behind paywalls.
Google faces four allegations outlined in the 57-page complaint. Three of these claims involve illegal reproduction through Google services, web scraping practices, and the development or training of Gemini. The fourth claim invokes the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The plaintiffs contend 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 issued a ruling on these allegations or granted class-action status.
Four allegations focus on Gemini’s training data
The proposed class encompasses individuals or entities holding 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 includes works Google allegedly duplicated from its platforms, downloaded via web scraping, or reproduced during Gemini’s development. Eligibility is also limited to works registered within the timeframes specified in the complaint.
The complaint highlights works from Hachette, Cengage, and Elsevier as examples of the alleged copying. It covers fiction, textbooks, and scholarly publications. The filing also references internal Google evaluations concerning legal risks linked to publisher-supplied books. One such assessment reportedly warned of potential fines ranging from $10 billion to $100 billion, according to the plaintiffs. The court has not yet made any determination regarding these internal reports.
Claims for damages and transparency
The plaintiffs seek statutory damages or actual damages plus profits attributable to any proven 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. The complaint further asks the court to oversee the destruction of any unauthorized copies held by Google. The total amount of damages sought is not specified in the filing.
This New York case follows an earlier attempt by Hachette and Cengage to incorporate similar copyright claims into a separate Google AI litigation in California. The Association of American Publishers indicated that the new lawsuit preserves claims outside the scope of that proceeding. The current case also includes Elsevier, Turow, and S.C.R.I.B.E. alongside the two publishers. The court is asked to determine whether Google’s Gemini training practices and data collection violate federal copyright law and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.