New York Times and Newspapers Sue Brave Over Alleged 30 Billion Page Scraping
New York Times and three newspapers sue Brave, alleging its 30 billion-page index scraped copyrighted work, bypassed paywalls and supplied AI companies.
Summary
On November 2, 2026, The New York Times sued 11-year-old, privacy-focused browser company Brave in Manhattan federal court, alleging it scraped copyrighted material and unlawfully distributed it to customers Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI and Cohere. The Daily News, Chicago Tribune and Orlando Sentinel filed a similar Manhattan federal lawsuit that day. The Times, which has separately sued OpenAI and Perplexity over similar claims, seeks an injunction and damages.
The complaints allege Brave built an index exceeding 30 billion web pages with an unidentified crawler publishers could not block. The Times also targets a Brave feature that allegedly bypasses paywalls and the company’s practice of blocking publisher advertising while selling its own ads, putting control of paid content and advertising revenue at issue. Founded in 2015, Brave has raised roughly $250 million, based on private-market tracker data. Brave did not immediately comment.
Positives
- Four publishers are pursuing legal control over copyrighted work, with The New York Times seeking an injunction and damages.
- The Daily News, Chicago Tribune and Orlando Sentinel filing broadens the legal challenge beyond The New York Times.
- Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI and Cohere are identified as alleged recipients, providing specific targets for examining AI content distribution.
- The Times is also pursuing OpenAI and Perplexity over similar claims, extending its copyright enforcement across browser and AI companies.
Risks & concerns
- Brave allegedly indexed more than 30 billion web pages through an unidentified crawler that publishers could not block.
- A Brave browser feature allegedly bypasses publisher paywalls, threatening control over subscription content.
- Brave allegedly blocks publisher advertising while selling its own ads, creating a potential conflict over digital revenue.
- Copyrighted material was allegedly distributed to Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI and Cohere without authorization.
- Brave did not immediately comment, leaving the publishers’ allegations unanswered.