NEW YORK / RankWire.AI / – Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, and Elsevier have initiated legal action against Google concerning its Gemini artificial intelligence platform. Author Scott Turow and his company, S.C.R.I.B.E., have joined the class action proposal. The complaint was filed on July 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs accuse Google of copying millions of copyrighted books and journal articles without authorization during the development and training of Gemini. As of July 15, the court had yet to rule on the claims or certify the class.
The lawsuit states that Google acquired content via Google Books, Google Play Books, and Google Scholar. Publishers and authors had supplied their works for specific functions, including search, sales, and research purposes. The plaintiffs argue that these agreements did not permit extensive commercial AI training. They also claim Google downloaded large web-scraped datasets containing copyrighted material, some sourced from known piracy sites and paywalled services.
The 57-page complaint outlines four claims under federal law. Three focus on alleged reproduction via Google services, web scraping, and Gemini’s development or training. The fourth references the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The plaintiffs allege Google removed or altered copyright management information from training datasets. The filing also mentions internal discussions about using publisher-provided books. One assessment estimates potential fines between $10 billion and $100 billion. These allegations have not yet been tested in court.
Class Includes Registered Works
The proposed class encompasses owners of registered U.S. copyrights for qualifying books and journal articles. Eligible books must have an International Standard Book Number (ISBN), and eligible articles must bear a Digital Object Identifier or International Standard Serial Number. The class includes works allegedly copied from Google services or downloaded during web scraping, as well as those reproduced during Gemini’s development or training.
Registration timing also restricts class membership. One criterion requires registration within five years of publication and prior to Google’s alleged reproduction or distribution. Another mandates registration within three months of publication. The lawsuit excludes government entities, Google affiliates, certain court participants, and individuals who properly exit the class. The court’s approval of the class is necessary before the case can proceed on behalf of the broader group.
Legal Demands and Compensation
The plaintiffs seek statutory damages or actual damages for proven infringements. They also request Google’s profits attributable to any copyright violations. Their relief demands include an injunction, legal costs, and a jury trial. The complaint does not specify a damages total but asks Google to disclose Gemini training data, collection methods, and known model capabilities through a court-ordered accounting.
This accounting would identify copyrighted works used during Gemini’s training, detailing how Google collected, copied, processed, and encoded such materials. The plaintiffs also seek court-supervised destruction of unauthorized copies under Google’s control. Earlier, Hachette and Cengage sought to join separate AI-related litigation against Google in California. The New York lawsuit expands the list to include Elsevier, Turow, and S.C.R.I.B.E., while pursuing claims related to Google services, web scraping, and Gemini’s training process.