Google must face former NPR host David Greene's lawsuit accusing the company of copying his voice for NotebookLM, after a California state judge overruled Google's demurrer on all four of his claims. Judge Shella Deen of Santa Clara County Superior Court filed the order on October 23.
Greene alleges Google used recordings of his voice to build the default male voice in NotebookLM's Audio Overviews, a feature introduced in September 2024 that turns uploaded documents into a podcast-style conversation between a male and a female AI host. He says Google then used that voice to market and sell the product without his permission.
Google denies the allegations. A company spokesperson has called the claims baseless and said Google hired a professional actor for NotebookLM, building the male voice around that performer rather than Greene.
Key facts
- 01Judge Shella Deen overruled Google's demurrer on all four of David Greene's claims in an October 23 order.
- 02Greene alleges NotebookLM's default male Audio Overviews voice was built from recordings of his voice.
- 03Google calls the claims baseless and says it hired a professional actor for the voice.
- 04The court found a voice is not copyrightable, rejecting Google's Copyright Act preemption argument.
- 05Greene seeks damages, restitution, disgorgement and an injunction, including under California Civil Code section 3344.
The claims that survived are statutory right of publicity under California Civil Code section 3344, unfair competition, common law misappropriation, and quasi-contract and unjust enrichment. Greene seeks damages, restitution, disgorgement and injunctive relief. The judge sustained a separate demurrer from Alphabet, Google's parent company, with leave to amend.
Google argued that the complaint shows only that Greene's journalism is well known, not his voice. Judge Deen rejected that argument, reasoning that for a radio broadcaster the line between the two is hard to draw.
“A radio host reaches the audience through the voice, and it is reasonable to infer that the voice is widely known.”— Shella Deen, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge
Google also argued that the federal Copyright Act preempts the claims. The court disagreed, finding that a voice is not copyrightable and that the claims concern NotebookLM's outputs rather than its inputs. A federal judge in the Northern District of California took a similar view in July when sending the case back to state court after Google had removed it.
The complaint says NotebookLM is sold through paid subscriptions, including the $19.99-per-month Google One AI Premium tier, and that the voice was used in a December 2024 Spotify partnership. It cites listeners who said the male voice sounded like Greene and a forensic voice-recognition firm that reported relatively high evidence of a match.
The ruling does not decide whether those allegations are true. At this stage the court accepts the complaint's facts as pleaded, and whether Google built the voice from Greene's recordings or from another source that resembles him is left for the evidence. Judge Deen also acknowledged the court was applying a statute written long before generative AI existed.
Greene hosted Morning Edition for almost 10 years, also hosted Up First and covered the White House for four years. He now hosts Left, Right & Center and other podcasts, and filed the case on January 23.
Greene has 10 days from notice of the order to amend his complaint, limited to allegations about Alphabet's liability, and Google must respond within 10 days after that. Separately, the federal NO FAKES Act, which would create a federal right to control digital replicas of a person's voice, stalled in October, with no action expected until Congress returns after the midterms.
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