Publishers Sue Google for Copyright Infringement via Gemini AI

Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, author Scott Turow, and S.C.R.I.B.E. Inc. filed a federal class action lawsuit against Google in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs allege that Google committed one of the most prolific copyright infringements in history by illegally scraping millions of books and journal articles from the web and repurposing content from scope-limited programs, including Google Books, Google Play Books, and Google Scholar, to train its Gemini AI models.

The complaint asserts that Google misused material from the open web, including pirate sites such as Z-Library and OceanofPDF, and removed copyright management information in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Internal documents cited in the suit suggest Google executives were aware that these actions were "highly problematic" and estimated potential fines between $10 billion and $100 billion, yet they proceeded with the training.

Plaintiffs argue that Gemini generates verbatim or near-verbatim substitutes for original works, which displaces legitimate sales and mimics the creative choices of specific authors. The lawsuit seeks statutory damages, disgorgement of profits, permanent injunctions against further infringement, and an order for Google to destroy all unauthorized copies of the works. Google has not yet responded to requests for comment.