Publishers File Class Action Against Google Over Gemini AI Training
Monitor legal developments around AI training data to assess compliance risks.
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Summary
A coalition of major book publishers and authors filed a class action lawsuit against Google, alleging that the company used copyrighted books to train its Gemini AI models. The complaint, filed in the Southern District of New York, names Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, and novelist Scott Turow as plaintiffs. Google is accused of repurposing books that publishers provided for Google Books, violating the agreement that allowed only snippet display. An internal Google document cited in the suit estimates potential fines of $10 B–$100 B. The lawsuit claims that training on copyrighted material displaced legitimate book sales and enabled low‑cost substitutes. In parallel, Cloudflare announced that it will block multi‑purpose crawlers by default on ad‑supported pages, a move aimed primarily at Google’s crawler. Publishers may opt out of Google Search if a licensing deal is not reached, potentially impacting traffic for news sites. The case adds legal pressure to the broader AI copyright debate and could influence how AI companies source training data.
Key changes
- Google sued for training Gemini on copyrighted books
- Plaintiffs include Hachette, Cengage, Elsevier, Scott Turow
- Google allegedly used books from Google Books for training
- Internal Google doc estimates $10 B–$100 B fines
- Training on copyrighted material displaced legitimate book sales
- Cloudflare will block multi‑purpose crawlers by default on ad‑supported pages
- Publishers may opt out of Google Search if no licensing deal