New York Times sues Brave over alleged AI scraping and paywall bypass

The New York Times Company filed a federal complaint against Brave Software on November 2, accusing the browser and search provider of infringing its copyrights through a search index, AI-generated answers and an API used by AI developers. The complaint also alleges that a browser setting bypassed subscription controls. The case puts Brave’s role in collecting and distributing web content at issue, but it does not establish that the alleged conduct occurred or violated the law.

The case, The New York Times Co. v. Brave Software, Inc., No. 1:26-cv-09549, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. As of November 4, the public docket showed the complaint and case-opening filings, but no answer from Brave and no ruling on the merits.

The Times alleges that Brave copied its journalism into an independent search index, drew on indexed material in Ask Brave and supplied content to AI companies through Brave Search API endpoints. It also alleges that a Brave Browser setting called Paywall blocker circumvents access controls and that Brave blocks publisher advertising while operating its own advertising business. The opened record does not establish how the setting works in practice, what Times material the API or AI answers returned, or whether a named AI customer received Times content.

The complaint pleads direct, contributory and vicarious copyright infringement, anti-circumvention claims under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and unjust enrichment under New York law. Brave is the only defendant; the AI companies described as customers are not defendants in this case. The action therefore focuses on Brave’s alleged collection, retrieval and distribution of news content, a different posture from copyright disputes centered on model training.

Brave has separately said its Search API is built on an independent web index and offers LLM Context and News Search endpoints for AI applications. The company says the service supplies real-time web data to major large language models and makes the same LLM Context data that powers Ask Brave available to other developers. In February, Brave said its index contained 40 billion web pages and that the API handled billions of calls per week.

The filing does not decide whether Brave’s indexing, API outputs or AI answers are lawful, whether the alleged paywall bypass violates the DMCA, or whether Brave can be held secondarily liable for customers’ uses. Those questions remain for later pleadings, evidence and court rulings. As of November 4, the opened sources contained no substantive public response from Brave, and the docket showed no merits decision.