NYT and Other Publishers Sue Brave Over AI Scraping

The New York Times Sues Brave Web Browser Over AI Scraping and Paywalls

“While we believe in the ethical and responsible use and development of AI, Brave has flouted established copyright law and ignored repeated requests by The Times to stop its infringing conduct,” Graham James, an NYT spokesperson, said in a statement to theverge.com.

The New York Times and a group of other prominent publications filed lawsuits against Brave Software, the maker of the Brave web browser, targeting alleged unlawful web scraping to train artificial intelligence models and the provision of features that allow users to bypass paywalls. According to a complaint filed by the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, and the Orlando Sentinel, Brave Software has monetized its index of scraped websites by offering AI companies paid access to real-time online content.

Monetizing the Brave Index

The legal filings detail how Brave allegedly provides stolen copyrighted content to many generative AI companies, including Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere. These firms utilize the Brave Index to train their models, fetch content to answer specific user queries, or both. At the same time, the browser actively promotes hundreds of top publishers as being accessible through its built-in paywall blocker feature.

“Brave has never asked for the Publishers’ permission to access their websites, much less to copy the material and provide it to users or other AI companies,” the complaint states. The legal action outlines that Brave permits users to bypass publisher paywalls without consent and implements measures preventing outlets from blocking Brave’s automated access. The company has never compensated publishers for the use, copying, and distribution of their copyrighted works.

Attorney Criticizes Browser Maker Business Model

Steven Lieberman, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the other three publications, sharply criticized the browser maker’s business model.

“AI giants are now desperate to avoid getting caught red-handed stealing news from publishers, so Brave Software is selling them a back door to the journalism they know they have no right to. Buying stolen goods secondhand doesn’t make them legitimate. Brave must be held responsible for laundering pirated reporting for the AI industry.”

Jesse Dwyer, Perplexity’s chief communications officer, offered a pointed counter-statement regarding the litigation.

“The New York Times is overpaying its attorneys and underpaying its journalists. (Who could’ve easily identified the disinformation in this suit.)”

Brave, Anthropic, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere did not immediately reply to requests for comment following the initial court filings. Clarifications issued in early November confirmed that the secondary lawsuit was filed directly by the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, and the Orlando Sentinel rather than the parent corporate entities running them, establishing a focused front of regional and national mastheads challenging the browser developer’s data practices.