The New York Times and three other major US newspapers have sued Brave Software, accusing the privacy-focused browser maker of copying copyrighted journalism without permission and selling access to it to artificial intelligence companies.
The lawsuits were filed separately on November 2, 2026, in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, and Orlando Sentinel joined a separate complaint alleging similar copyright violations.
According to the complaints, Brave used an unidentified web crawler to build an index of more than 30 billion webpages, including copyrighted news articles. The publishers allege that Brave made this content available to AI companies through its Brave Search API, allowing them to retrieve articles for AI training and to generate responses to user queries.
The lawsuits identify Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere as companies that accessed Brave’s services. The AI firms are not named as defendants in these cases.
The publishers also challenge Brave’s Ask Brave AI search feature, which they allege reproduces substantial portions of copyrighted reporting. The Tribune publications cited examples in which Ask Brave allegedly returned more than 1,200 words from a Chicago Tribune article about data center tax breaks and nearly 600 words from a New York Daily News article about Central Park horse carriages.
The New York Times separately accused Brave of enabling users to bypass subscription paywalls through its browser’s Paywall blocker feature. The complaint also challenges Brave’s advertising practices, alleging that its browser blocks publishers’ advertisements while displaying Brave’s own ads.
The Times said it had previously sent Brave requests to stop using its content, including letters to CEO Brendan Eich in August 2025 and April 2026. The newspaper alleges that Brave did not respond.
Both lawsuits seek damages and injunctive relief. The Times also alleges violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, arguing that Brave circumvented technological measures protecting subscription content.
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Brave had not publicly responded to the lawsuits at the time of reporting. The allegations have not been proven in court.
