Authors, publishers sue Google over alleged AI copyright infringement

Major publishers and an author filed a federal lawsuit against Google in New York, accusing the technology company of copyright infringement in developing its Gemini artificial intelligence model. The complaint, spanning nearly 60 pages, alleges Google deliberately bypassed established copyright protections to obtain training material for its AI system. According to the lawsuit, Google first copied books through its Google Books service, claiming it obtained them for limited purposes, then downloaded web scrapes of virtually the entire internet including material from pirate sources and behind legitimate paywalls. The suit contends Google copied these works without permission to train Gemini and continues doing so despite such uses falling outside existing agreements. The plaintiffs allege Google was fully aware of legal risks, citing internal documents warning that using books to train AI models was "highly problematic" and could result in fines reaching $100 billion. The complaint states Google never informed authors and publishers that their works were being copied as source material for AI development. A technology and intellectual property law expert noted the case presents complex legal dimensions, particularly regarding whether fair use arguments could apply given the alleged unlawful acquisition of source materials. This lawsuit follows an earlier February attempt by Hachette and Cengage to join a pre-existing class action brought by authors in 2023. Publishers emphasized their united commitment to protecting intellectual property rights across fiction, nonfiction, children's books, memoirs, poetry, and educational materials. The case is part of broader litigation against AI companies, with a separate pending lawsuit against OpenAI involving authors including George R.R. Martin.