Publishers and author Scott Turow sue Google over books used to train Gemini

What happened

Hachette Book Group, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, author Scott Turow and S.C.R.I.B.E., Inc. filed a proposed class action against Google on 10 July 2026 in the Southern District of New York (No. 1:26-cv-05870), alleging Google copied copyrighted books and journal articles without permission to train its Gemini models. The complaint describes the alleged conduct as "one of the most prolific infringements of copyrighted materials in history."

What the complaint alleges

The plaintiffs allege Google repurposed works supplied for Google Books, Google Play Books and Google Scholar -- provided for search and snippet display -- to train Gemini, and also scraped works from the web, including from behind paywalls and alleged pirate sources. They allege Google stripped copyright management information, and cite an internal Google document said to warn that using copyrighted books for AI training could be "highly problematic" and risk "$10Bs-$100Bs in potential fines."

Status

The proposed class would cover owners of registered copyrights in books and journal articles. The class has not been certified, Google has not issued a detailed public response to the specific allegations, and no ruling on liability has been issued.