Legal battle erupts between Brave and News Corp over indexing articles
Brave argues its search engine practices fall under fair use and are essential for AI.
Brave Software has filed a lawsuit against News Corp in a bid to preempt legal action over the indexing of copyrighted articles from publications such as The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.
The legal dispute stems from a cease-and-desist letter issued by News Corp, which accused Brave of ‘scraping’ its websites and misappropriating content. Brave argues that indexing is standard practice for search engines and falls under ‘fair use.’
The lawsuit also raises concerns about the impact of such legal challenges on generative AI. Brave claims that search indexing is essential for AI models like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, which rely on search engine responses.
The company, which holds less than 1% of the search market compared to Google’s 90%, accuses News Corp of attempting to stifle competition and raise barriers for smaller search providers.
News Corp has rejected Brave’s arguments, with CEO Robert Thomson calling the company’s practices ‘parasitical’ and accusing it of unauthorised content scraping.
The dispute is part of a broader conflict between publishers and tech firms over the use of copyrighted material in AI training. News Corp previously sued AI startup Perplexity AI for allegedly copying its content without permission.
Brave is seeking a court declaration that its indexing practices do not constitute copyright infringement.
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