The New York Times and others sue Brave for scraping content to train AI
Understand this story
The New York Times and several other publishing organizations have sued Brave Software in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging that it bypassed paywalls to scrape news content and provided the content through the Brave search index to AI companies such as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere. The complaint states that Brave never obtained permission or compensation from the publishers. A New York Times spokesperson said the lawsuit was filed to hold Brave accountable for stealing content. The publishers are seeking to shut down the paywall-bypass feature and to terminate Brave's partnerships with the aforementioned AI companies.
AI overview based on source reports · Updated 7 hr ago
Coverage timeline
Follow the coverage to explore different perspectives.
- Hacker News AINYT demands Brave shut down its paywall blocker and end deals with AI firms
The New York Times and other newspaper companies sued Brave Software, alleging the browser maker illegally bypasses paywalls and sells stolen news content to AI companies including Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere. The suit, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, accuses Brave of direct, contributory, and vicarious copyright infringement and of violating the DMCA by circumventing paywall access controls. It also claims Brave's browser blocks ads on The Times's site and shows its own instead, depriving the publisher of digital advertising revenue.
- TechCrunch · AINew York Times and other outlets sue web browser Brave over alleged content scraping
The New York Times sued Brave on Monday in federal court in Manhattan, alleging the privacy-focused browser company scraped its copyrighted content and distributed it to AI companies including Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere. The Daily News, Chicago Tribune, and Orlando Sentinel filed a similar lawsuit the same day. The Times, which has also sued OpenAI and Perplexity, seeks an injunction and damages, alleging Brave built an index of more than 30 billion webpages and offers a feature that bypasses paywalls.
- Hacker News AIThe New York Times sues Brave web browser for AI scraping and bypassing paywalls
The New York Times and other publications including the New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, and Orlando Sentinel have sued Brave Software, alleging it scraped their content to build an index sold to AI companies such as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere, and that its browser lets users bypass paywalls. The complaint says Brave never sought permission or compensated the publishers, while an NYT spokesperson said the suit aims to hold Brave accountable for stealing content. Perplexity's chief communications officer disputed the suit in a statement to The Verge, and Brave, Anthropic, Mistral, SpaceXAI, and Cohere did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Activity for this story
- Current comparable activity
- 3
- Peak comparable activity
- 10Nov 4 04:00
- Change in the past 24 hours
- -50%
Trends compare the same fully observed participants, which may cover fewer participants than current activity. Move the pointer or tap the chart to inspect hourly activity; use the left and right arrow keys with a keyboard.