New York Times and other publishers sue Brave over alleged AI scraping and paywall bypass
The New York Times and a group of other publications have filed lawsuits against Brave Software, accusing the browser company of unlawfully scraping copyrighted news content and allowing users to bypass publisher paywalls.
The publishers also allege that Brave monetized its web index by providing paid access to real-time online content from the Brave Index to AI companies. According to the complaint, those companies used the material to train models, retrieve information in response to specific user queries, or provide other AI-powered services.
The lawsuits characterize Brave as a supplier and distributor of unlawfully obtained news content. Brave’s index and related access services are at the center of the dispute, which links two separate publisher concerns: the use of news content to develop AI systems and the circumvention of controls on subscription access.
No findings have been reported yet; the allegations are set out in the publishers’ complaints.