“Whether fair use is an available defense is a common question,” the motion said. “Courts have routinely rejected fair use for acquiring unauthorized copies to avoid payment obligations. The court should do the same here.”
The filing cited parallels to a recent case involving Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, where similar copyright claims advanced to trial after a judge certified the class. That case ultimately settled for $1.5 billion earlier this year.
Representation and Next Steps
Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The artists and writers are represented by:
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Lesley Weaver, Anne Davis, Joshua Samra, and Gregory Mullens of Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP;
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Joseph Saveri, Cardo Zirpoli, Christopher Young, Elissa Buchanan, Evan Creutz, and Aaron Cera of Joseph Saveri Law Firm LLP;
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Brian Clark, Laura Matson, Arielle Wagner, Consuela Abotsi-Kowu, and Stephen Teti of Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP;
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Ryan Clarkson, Yana Hart, and Mark Richards of Clarkson Law Firm PC; and
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Matthew Butterick of Butterick Law.
Google is represented by David Kramer, Eric Tuttle, Jeremy Auster, Kelly Knoll, Madison Welsh, Maura Rees, Paul Sampson, and Qifan Huang of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, along with Michael Kwun and Nicholas Roethlisberger of Kwun Bhansali Lazarus LLP.
The case is In re Google Generative AI Copyright Litigation, Case No. 5:23-cv-03440, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
