Publishers and author launch class action against Google over Gemini AI copyright claims
The filing in New York follows a broader wave of litigation against major tech firms, though previous court rulings have largely favoured AI developers under fair use doctrines.
Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, and author Scott Turow have initiated a class action lawsuit against Google in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs allege that the technology giant infringed copyright laws by utilising their works to train its Gemini artificial intelligence model without permission or compensation.
The complaint asserts that Google reproduced millions of copyrighted works with full knowledge that its conduct violated copyright law. Beyond the alleged unlicensed training, the filing claims that Google stripped copyright management information from the materials to conceal training sources and facilitate their unauthorised use.
The suit further argues that Gemini produces outputs that substitute for the copyrighted works on which it was trained. The plaintiffs contend that Google failed to implement effective guardrails to prevent the creation of copycat works, despite knowing that such outputs would occur without appropriate restrictions.
This legal action forms part of a wider campaign by the creative industry to secure compensation from AI developers. Similar class action efforts are already underway against Meta, while other authors have pursued claims against Apple regarding the unlicensed use of their creations for AI training.
The litigation arrives amidst a complex judicial landscape for AI copyright disputes. While two recent decisions in California have ruled that training on copyrighted works constitutes fair use under existing U.S. law, the plaintiffs in this New York case are seeking a different judicial perspective.
The context of these claims is highlighted by a separate $1.5 billion settlement involving Anthropic in 2025. Although that agreement was rejected by a judge as incomplete, with many eligible writers opting out to pursue further action, it underscored the financial stakes involved in these disputes.
Despite the high-profile nature of the filing, copyright infringement cases involving AI training have seen limited success to date. The outcome of this lawsuit remains uncertain, with the long-term impact on AI training practices yet to be determined.
