NEW YORK / RankWire.AI / – Three leading U.S. publishing companies have initiated legal action against Google, accusing it of copyright violations related to its Gemini artificial intelligence platform. Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, and Elsevier filed 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 suit claims 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. The publishers and authors had provided these works to support search functionalities, sales, and research activities, states the complaint. However, the filing asserts that these arrangements did not permit Google to reproduce the works for commercial AI training purposes. The lawsuit also accuses Google of using web-scraped datasets that included content from pirate sites and subscription services behind paywalls.
Google is facing 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 claim invokes the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The plaintiffs allege 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 Concerning Gemini’s Training Data
The proposed class includes U.S. copyright owners of eligible books and journal articles. To qualify, books must have an International Standard Book Number, while articles need 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 training process. It also restricts eligibility to works registered within the deadlines specified in the complaint.
The lawsuit cites works from Hachette, Cengage, and Elsevier as examples of the alleged copying activity. It covers fiction, textbooks, and academic materials among the impacted categories. The filing mentions 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 not issued any rulings regarding these internal documents.
Claims for Compensation and Transparency
The plaintiffs seek statutory or actual damages, along with profits from any proven infringement. They also request an injunction, legal fees, and a jury trial. Their proposed order would require Google to disclose the materials and methods used to train Gemini. Additionally, they ask the court to oversee the destruction of any unauthorized copies under Google’s control. The complaint does not specify an exact damages amount.
This New York case follows an earlier effort by Hachette and Cengage to incorporate their copyright claims into separate Google AI litigation in California. The Association of American Publishers indicated that the new lawsuit maintains claims outside the scope of the California case. It involves Elsevier, Turow, and S.C.R.I.B.E., alongside the two publishers. The suit urges 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.