Science & Tech · Big Tech & Internet · 2 hrs ago
New York Times and other publishers sue Brave over alleged content scraping
The New York Times and three other publishers sued Brave in federal court in Manhattan on Monday.
The publishers allege that Brave copied their copyrighted content without permission and made it available to AI companies.
The other publishers behind a separate lawsuit are the Daily News, the Chicago Tribune and the Orlando Sentinel.
Brave, which makes a privacy-focused web browser, is accused of building an index of more than 30 billion webpages and selling AI companies access to its content.
The lawsuits also challenge Brave’s browser feature that lets users bypass publishers’ paywalls.
The cases raise questions about publishers’ control over their work when it is used by AI services and browser features.
The New York Times is seeking an injunction and damages; the lawsuits’ outcomes are not stated.
The New York Times and several other publishers sued Brave Software over alleged copyright infringement involving scraped online content.
The Times alleges Brave supplied copyrighted material to AI companies, including Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI and Cohere.
A separate lawsuit was filed by the companies that run the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune and the Orlando Sentinel.
Both lawsuits were filed in federal court in Manhattan on Monday.
The publishers also challenge Brave’s paywall-bypass feature and other practices they say impede publishers from blocking access.
- Who
- The New York Times and companies that run the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune and the Orlando Sentinel sued Brave Software.
- What
- They allege Brave unlawfully scraped and distributed copyrighted content, including to AI companies, and enabled users to bypass paywalls.
- When
- Monday, November 2, 2026.
- Where
- Federal court in Manhattan.
- Why
- The publishers allege Brave copied and distributed their copyrighted material without permission or compensation.
Publishers
Brave and Perplexity
Alleged scraping
Publishers
The publishers say Brave copied and distributed their copyrighted content without permission.
Brave and Perplexity
Brave did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Paywall access
Publishers
The publishers say Brave lets users bypass paywalls without consent and takes steps to prevent them from blocking access.
Brave and Perplexity
Brave did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Use of content
Publishers
The Times says Brave used its content to power its products and provide it to AI companies.
Brave and Perplexity
Perplexity’s Jesse Dwyer said the Times was overpaying its attorneys and underpaying its journalists, and called the suit’s claims disinformation.
Brave was founded.
The New York Times sued Brave in federal court in Manhattan.
The Daily News, the Chicago Tribune and the Orlando Sentinel filed a similar lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan.
- Defendant
- Brave Software, maker of the Brave web browser
- Court
- Federal court in Manhattan
- Times lawsuit date
- November 2, 2026
- Other publishers
- New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune and Orlando Sentinel
- AI companies named
- Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI and Cohere
2 sources
What people are saying
We filed this lawsuit to hold Brave accountable for stealing our 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.
The New York Times is overpaying its attorneys and underpaying its journalists. (Who could’ve easily identified the disinformation in this suit.)
Brave has never compensated the Publishers for the unlawful use, copying, and distribution of the Publishers’ copyrighted content.
In this way, Brave acts both like a burglar that misappropriates the content of publishers, and an AI ‘fence’ that sells stolen content to third parties.