Book Publishers Seek Entry Into Google AI Copyright Fight
Hachette Book Group and Cengage Group have filed a motion to intervene in a class action lawsuit against Google, accusing it of large-scale copyright infringement to develop its Gemini AI platform. The publishers allege that Google copied and used books from pirate sites—including Z-Library and others flagged by authorities for piracy—without proper licenses. These works, including those protected by paywalls on sites like Scribd, were allegedly incorporated into Google's C4 dataset, which contains widespread copyrighted material. The publishers claim Google’s AI model produces outputs that directly substitute for and sometimes copy original works. The lawsuit seeks statutory damages, injunctive relief to halt further infringement, and orders for Google to destroy unauthorized copies and disclose the books used for training. This legal move follows similar lawsuits against AI companies, where courts have issued mixed rulings regarding fair use and the retention of unauthorized content.
