Analysis
The New York Times and three newspapers sue Brave over alleged scraping and sales to AI firms
The Times and the publishers of three dailies filed suits against Brave on Nov. 2, 2026. Everything below is alleged; Brave's reply was not found.
On Monday, November 2, 2026, the New York Times and, a few hours later, the publishers of the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune and the Orlando Sentinel filed separate suits against Brave Software in a federal court in Manhattan. The complaints allege that Brave scraped publishers' sites, built a search index and sold access to AI companies. These are allegations; nothing is decided.
The essentials
- Filed: two separate complaints on November 2, 2026, in a federal court in Manhattan.
- Alleged: scraping by an unidentified crawler, a 30-billion-page index, and sales of access through the Brave Search API.
- Unknown: Brave's response (not found) and whether any claim is true.
- AI firms: named by the complaints as alleged customers, not as defendants.
Who filed suit, and for what?
The Times sued first. Per TNW, citing MLex, its complaint raises copyright and DMCA claims; per Search Engine Journal, it alleges infringement, contributory and willful, after letters in August 2025 and April 2026. We saw no specific remedy requested. A Times spokesperson, Graham James, told TNW the paper asked Brave to stop and was ignored (the Times' account).
The three newspapers (described by TNW as Alden-owned) bring five counts: direct, contributory and vicarious copyright infringement, circumvention of technical protections under the DMCA, and unjust enrichment under New York law. They seek damages, disgorgement of profits, a permanent injunction and a jury trial.
Source: TNW, Search Engine Journal, Bloomberg Law (November 2, 2026).
What do the plaintiffs allege against Brave?
According to the complaints as relayed by TNW, the "Brave Index" holds more than 30 billion web pages and powers Brave Search, and Brave sells access to it through its Search API. The plaintiffs say Brave's crawler is not identified, so it cannot be blocked by name. They also allege that the Ask Brave assistant reproduces passages verbatim, and that a browser paywall-blocker setting lets readers see paid content without logging in. The three newspapers add that Brave blocks publishers' ads by default while selling its own. Bloomberg Law quotes the complaint as calling Brave an "AI fence".
Source: TNW, Search Engine Journal, Bloomberg Law (November 2, 2026).
Which AI firms are named, and in what role?
TNW says both complaints identify Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI and Cohere as API customers. Bloomberg Law names Anthropic PBC and Perplexity AI; Search Engine Journal names Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral "and others". The lists differ by outlet. TNW describes them as customers; it is not established that any is a defendant, and we found no reply from any. The alleged use is training and grounding language models; TNW quotes Brave's own marketing calling that the API's most common use. The complaints also cite a Brave blog post saying Anthropic used the API to train Claude 2; that is the newspapers' citation, unverified by TNW or us, and we draw no conclusion.
What does Brave say?
We found no response from Brave. For context, TNW notes Brave sued News Corp in March 2025 seeking a fair-use declaration for its indexing; News Corp counterclaimed in July 2026.
What is not established?
Whether any allegation is true; Brave's position; the legal role of the five AI firms and their replies; the Times' specific demands; case numbers; the index size, which comes from the plaintiffs.
Comparison table
| Point | What sources say as of Nov 3, 2026 | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Filings | Two suits on Nov. 2 in a federal court in Manhattan | TNW, Bloomberg Law |
| Times claims | Copyright and DMCA; infringement after notices of Aug. 2025 and Apr. 2026 | TNW (MLex), SEJ |
| Newspapers' claims | Five counts; damages, profits, injunction, jury | TNW |
| Index | More than 30 billion pages, per plaintiffs | TNW |
| AI firms | Named as alleged API customers, not defendants | TNW |
| Brave's reply | Not found | None |
Frequently asked questions
Has Brave been found liable?
No. These are complaints filed on November 2, 2026; nothing has been judged.
Are the AI companies being sued?
According to TNW, the complaints cite them as customers, not as defendants.
What does the Brave Index contain?
According to the plaintiffs, more than 30 billion pages; the figure is unverified.
Method and limits
We read pages through automatic summaries, not the complaints; Bloomberg Law only as a paywalled excerpt. We found no reply from Brave or the AI firms and ran no tests. This is not legal or investment advice.
Sources
- TNW (November 2, 2026) (verified 2026-11-03)
- Search Engine Journal, Roger Montti (verified 2026-11-03)
- Bloomberg Law (November 2, 2026), excerpt only, paywalled (verified 2026-11-03)
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