Book Writers Sue Google Over Alleged Use of Copyrighted Books to Train Gemini

Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, author Scott Turow, and S.C.R.I.B.E., Inc. have filed a proposed federal class-action lawsuit against Google.

They accuse the company of copying copyrighted books and journal articles without permission to train its Gemini AI models. The lawsuit was filed on July 10, 2026. The case, Hachette Book Group Inc. et al. v. Google LLC, is under case number 1:26-cv-05870 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The complaint describes Google's alleged actions as "one of the most prolific infringements of copyrighted materials in history." However, these allegations have not been proven in court, and no ruling has been issued on Google's liability.

The Legal Claims and Publisher Deals at the Heart of the Gemini Lawsuit

The plaintiffs allege four legal claims: direct copyright infringement, contributory copyright infringement, removal or alteration of copyright-management information, and violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

They argue that Google obtained protected material through its book services, internet scraping, and other sources before using the content to train Gemini.

Publishers provided books and journal articles to Google Books, Google Play Books, and Google Scholar under agreements that covered specific uses, such as displaying searchable excerpts, distributing ebooks, and helping users discover academic publications.

The plaintiffs claim that these agreements did not authorize Google to copy entire works into datasets used for commercial generative AI development, and that Google repurposed material received through established publishing relationships for uses not covered by the contracts.

The complaint also states that Google collected books and other protected material through extensive internet scraping, including sources such as pirate websites and publications behind subscription or paywalls.

How This Gemini Case Differs from Google Books, and What Internal…