The New York Times and the publishers of the New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune and Orlando Sentinel filed two lawsuits against Brave Software on November 2, 2026, in Manhattan federal court.
The Times complaint and three-publisher complaint allege that Brave copied journalism into its search index and supplied unlicensed content through its AI answers and paid search API. Both name Brave alone as defendant; AI companies described as customers are not defendants in these cases.
The publishers distinguish several alleged uses: copying material into an index, supplying data for model training, retrieving articles to answer current queries, and reproducing article text in answers. Those are not interchangeable copyright questions.
Separate Digital Millennium Copyright Act claims challenge alleged paywall circumvention. The complaints also assert unjust enrichment over alleged replacement of publisher advertising with Brave’s own ads—a theory expressly independent of copying.
The publishers seek damages and injunctions. These are newly filed claims, not court findings that Brave infringed copyright or that AI training is unlawful.
For broadcast newsrooms and other digital publishers, the stakes extend beyond model training: who may supply their reporting to AI services, and what happens to subscription, advertising and licensing revenue.
RNN found no case-specific Brave response or merits ruling in the sources reviewed. The Times case is 1:26-cv-09549; the three-publisher case is 1:26-cv-09554, both in the Southern District of New York.
Related: Why technical-access claims differ from AI-training copyright claims.