New York Times sues Brave over AI scraping and paywall bypass
The New York Times and a group of other publications have filed lawsuits against Brave Software, the company that makes the Brave web browser. The suits allege unlawful scraping to train AI and letting users bypass the publishers' paywalls. The Verge reports the news as coming via Reuters.
The detailed allegations come from a complaint filed by the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune and the Orlando Sentinel. According to that complaint, Brave has monetized its index of scraped websites by, in part, giving AI companies paid access to "real-time online content from the Brave Index." Those AI companies then allegedly use the index to train their models, to access content to "respond to specific user queries," or both. The complaint says Brave has provided "stolen copyrighted content" to "many" AI companies, including Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI and Cohere.
The paywall claim is separate. Brave promotes "hundreds of top publishers" as accessible through the "Paywall blocker" feature in its browser. The complaint says Brave has never asked the publishers' permission to access their sites, much less to copy the material and provide it to users or other AI companies. It adds that Brave allows its users to bypass the paywalls without consent and has taken other steps that prevent the publishers from blocking Brave's access to their websites. It also says Brave has never compensated the publishers for the alleged unlawful use, copying and distribution of their copyrighted content.
Graham James, an NYT spokesperson, told The Verge that while the paper believes 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. He said the paper filed the suit to hold Brave accountable for stealing its content to power its own products and to provide it to some of the most prominent and well-resourced generative AI companies in the world.
Steven Lieberman, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the other three publications, said AI giants are now desperate to avoid getting caught red-handed stealing news from publishers, so Brave is selling them a back door to the journalism they know they have no right to. In his words: "Buying stolen goods secondhand doesn't make them legitimate. Brave must be held responsible for laundering pirated reporting for the AI industry."
Brave, Anthropic, Mistral, SpaceXSI and Cohere did not immediately reply to The Verge's request for comment. Jesse Dwyer, Perplexity's chief communications officer, answered with a jab at the paper: the New York Times is overpaying its attorneys and underpaying its journalists, who could have easily identified the disinformation in the suit. His reply does not address whether Perplexity bought Brave Index access.
The Verge updated its article on November 2nd to clarify that one lawsuit was filed by the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune and the Orlando Sentinel, not the companies that run them, and to add the attorney's statement.
Key facts
- The New York Times and a group of other publications have sued Brave Software over alleged unlawful scraping to train AI and letting users bypass paywalls.
- A complaint by the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune and the Orlando Sentinel alleges Brave sold AI companies paid access to "real-time online content from the Brave Index."
- The complaint names Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI and Cohere among the AI companies Brave allegedly supplied with "stolen copyrighted content."
- Brave promotes "hundreds of top publishers" as accessible through its "Paywall blocker" feature; the complaint says users can bypass paywalls without consent.
- Brave did not immediately reply to a request for comment; Perplexity's communications chief dismissed the suit but did not address the Brave Index claim.
Why it matters
The suits go after a supplier rather than an AI lab. The complaint's theory is that Brave collects publishers' content in an index, then sells AI companies paid access to it, so the AI firms get the material second-hand. The attorney's line, "Buying stolen goods secondhand doesn't make them legitimate," states that theory plainly. The paywall-blocking feature adds a second charge aimed at the browser itself, not only at its index business.
Who it affects
Brave Software is the defendant. The plaintiffs are the New York Times and, in the complaint The Verge describes, the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune and the Orlando Sentinel. The complaint also names Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI and Cohere as recipients of the allegedly stolen content; they are not described as defendants. Brave users who rely on the Paywall blocker feature are also in the frame, since the complaint says the feature lets them bypass paywalls without publisher consent.
How to use it
There is nothing to adopt here; this is a legal dispute. For readers who build on search indexes or content APIs, the practical point is what the complaint targets: paid access to scraped, real-time web content, which the AI customers then use to train models or to answer user queries.
How solid is it
The reporting is solid on what was filed and who said what, but everything about Brave's conduct is an allegation made in a complaint. No court has ruled on any of it. The Verge's article credits Reuters for the news of the lawsuits and was updated on November 2nd to correct who filed one of them. The filing date, the court or courts, and any damages sought are not given. The source also does not say which AI companies trained models on the Brave Index versus used it for user queries.
Risks and caveats
Brave's side is not in the story: it did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Anthropic, Mistral, SpaceXSI and Cohere did not respond either, and Perplexity's reply was a dismissal that does not address whether it bought access to the Brave Index. The lede says "a group of other publications," but only three are named. The source does not say whether the NYT lawsuit is a separate complaint, which court it is in, or who its lawyers are; the complaint quoted is the one by the Daily News, Tribune and Sentinel.
“Brave has flouted established copyright law and ignored repeated requests by The Times to stop its infringing conduct”
— Graham James, New York Times spokesperson, in a statement to The Verge