Google sued by publishers for allegedly promoting pirated textbooks

Lina PortmanJune 6, 2024

1 1 minute read

Major educational publishers – Cengage, Macmillan Learning, McGraw Hill and Elsevier – have filed a lawsuit against Google, accusing it of promoting pirated copies of their textbooks.

Why is this important. The case could reshape how tech giants handle copyright infringement and impact the $8.3 billion U.S. textbook market.

Why we care. Advertisers will be interested in this lawsuit because it goes to the heart of advertising integrity and fair competition. If the allegations are true – that Google promotes pirated textbooks while restricting ads for legitimate textbooks – it suggests that the tech giant may not be providing a level playing field or ensuring brand safety.

Details.

Filed in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York
Google accused of ignoring thousands of infringement notices
Pirated eBooks would be displayed at the top of search results
Publishers say Google restricts ads for licensed e-books

By the numbers. Pirated textbooks are often sold at artificially low prices, to the detriment of legitimate sellers.

What they say. “Google has become a den of thieves for textbook pirates,” Matt Oppenheim, the publisher’s lawyer, told Reuters.

Google has not commented on the lawsuit.

And after. The case (No. 1:24-cv-04274) seeks unspecified monetary damages.

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About the Author

Anu Adegbola was Paid Media Editor of Search Engine Land since 2024. It covers paid search, paid social, retail media, video and more.

In 2008, Anu's career began with

lead digital marketing campaigns (primarily, but not exclusively, paid search) by strategizing, maximizing ROI, automating repetitive processes, and improving the efficiency of every part of marketing departments through leadership inspiring on the agency side as well as on the client and marketing technology side.

Outside of Search Engine Land article editing, she is the founder of the PPC networking event – PPC Live, host of weekly podcast PPCChat Roundup, and brand evangelist at ClickTech.

She is also an international speaker with some of the stages she has presented on SMX (USA), SMX (Munich), Friends of Search (Amsterdam), BrightonSEO, The Marketing Meetup, HeroConf (PPC Hero), SearchLove, BiddableWorld, SESLondon. , PPC Chat Live, AdWorld Experience (Bologna) and more.