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AI copyright news, graded by source

Court rulings, company filings and allegations in the copyright cases against AI companies and pirate libraries, over books, articles, music, images, video and code. Checked for new filings every three hours; items are posted after review, so some appear later. Get these by e-mail · Court filings, free to read

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Plaintiffs' filingJanuary 27, 2026In re Google Generative AI Copyright Litigation · N.D. Cal. 5:23-cv-03440

Google witness testified that Google Books supplies training data for its AI models, plaintiffs tell the court

In a joint discovery letter, plaintiffs in the Google case quote the deposition of a Google corporate witness: that "we use data we get from the Google Books team" to train some of its models. They also quote an internal Google document saying the Google Books team has provided training data to Gemini since the beginning. According to the plaintiffs' description of sealed exhibits, books scanned from libraries were approved for training on a fair use theory, and books supplied by publishers under Google's partner program were used to train earlier models until 2023 without a license for that use. Google's part of the letter does not dispute that there was a change in 2023 and says a witness testified about the reasons. Google opposes the further discovery the plaintiffs seek. Apart from the quoted testimony and document, these are the plaintiffs' characterizations of evidence that remains sealed. Google Books scans are a separate source from the pirate libraries.

Joint discovery letter brief (Dkt. 380), pp. 2-3, 9 ↗

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Every item says what kind of source it rests on. A court ruling or order is the court's own statement. A company filing is what a defendant says about itself. A government filing is a statement by a government agency that is not a party to the case, such as a statement of interest; it is the government's position, not a ruling. An allegation is what a complaint or motion claims and has not been decided. Reported means press reporting we have not confirmed from the primary document. Summaries are our own; follow the links for the source.

This page is general information, not legal advice. An allegation is not a finding. Whether any of this matters for a particular work or claim is a question for a lawyer.