Publishers sue Brave over AI index access and paywall bypass features

The New York Times and a coalition of publications have initiated legal proceedings against Brave Software. These complaints allege that the browser maker unlawfully scraped their content for artificial intelligence training while enabling users to circumvent paywalls.Several news organizations are suing the makers of the Brave browser for using their articles without permission.Plaintiffs allege Brave violated copyright by indexing and distributing proprietary content to downstream AI service providers.

The facts

Reuters reported that the lawsuits were filed by the New York Times alongside other major publishers.reported The legal documents assert that Brave Software monetized its index of scraped websites by selling access to AI companies. This paid access allowed firms to obtain real-time online content from the Brave Index for model training or user query responses.

The allegations

The named recipients include Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere. The plaintiffs state that Brave never sought permission to copy this material or distribute it to third parties.

What to make of it

The complaint contends that Brave allows users to bypass publisher paywalls without consent. It further alleges that the browser maker took technical steps to prevent publishers from blocking Brave’s access to their websites.

In practice

For startup founders, this litigation highlights the legal risks associated with using scraped data for AI model training. The complaints specify that Brave sold access to its index to companies building generative AI products. Founders should note that the plaintiffs claim this distribution occurred without permission or payment. The source does not confirm the current availability of the Brave Index.