{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0819","record_version":1,"title":"New York Times sues Brave over alleged scraping and redistribution of copyrighted content to AI companies","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":45.2,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":0.0,"completeness":4.8,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-03","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: TechCrunch · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":1,"reports_independent":1,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":true,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-03","history":[{"date":"2026-11-03","from_level":null,"to_level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: TechCrunch · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"9736e53c133415732714bd54ea030d9a5d9b835f1a061427465121b7225ddc14"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"unknown","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"production","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-11-02","incident_class":"ip_infringement","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":false,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"The New York Times sued Brave, a privacy-focused browser company, alleging that Brave scraped the outlet’s copyrighted content and unlawfully distributed it to AI companies named in the suit as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere. The suit says Brave built an index of more than 30 billion webpages using an unidentified crawler, leaving publishers unable to block it, and likens Brave to a “supplier, dealer, and distributor of stolen copyrighted content.” It also targets a Brave browser feature that bypasses paywalls and the company’s practice of blocking publishers’ ads while selling its own. The Times seeks an injunction and damages. Brave did not immediately respond to a request for comment.","tags":["lawsuit","copyright-scraping","paywall-bypass","web-crawler","content-redistribution"],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":"deployer","adversarial_actor":"none","input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"moderate","severity_because":"A lawsuit alleging misappropriation of a publisher’s copyrighted content and its redistribution to third parties; no monetary figure or safety impact is stated.","harm_class":["ip"],"affected_description":"The New York Times and its copyrighted content; the suit names Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere as customers receiving the content.","protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/02/new-york-times-and-other-outlets-sue-web-browser-brave-over-alleged-content-scraping/","publisher":"TechCrunch","date":"2026-11-02","type":"press","title":"New York Times and other outlets sue web browser Brave over alleged content scraping","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report","independence":"independent"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.developer":"D","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"C","event.date_disclosed":"C","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","event.summary":"C","event.tags":"C","event.responsible_party":"C","event.adversarial_actor":"C","event.incident_class":"C","event.agent_involved":"C","impact.severity":"C","impact.harm_class":"C","impact.affected_description":"C","impact.severity_because":"C","context.industry":"C","context.country":"C","context.denominator_available":"D","context.regulatory":"C"},"field_citations":{"system.deployment_context":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The suit also targets a Brave browser feature that bypasses paywalls and the company’s practice of blocking publishers’ ads while selling its own."}],"event.date_disclosed":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The New York Times sued Brave, the 11-year-old, privacy-focused browser company, on Monday, alleging it scraped the outlet’s copyrighted content and unlawfully distributed it to customers the suit names as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The New York Times sued Brave, the 11-year-old, privacy-focused browser company, on Monday, alleging it scraped the outlet’s copyrighted content and unlawfully distributed it to customers the suit names as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"It says Brave built an index of more than 30 billion webpages using an unidentified crawler, leaving publishers unable to block it."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The Times seeks an injunction and damages."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Brave did not immediately respond to a request for comment."}],"event.tags":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The New York Times sued Brave, the 11-year-old, privacy-focused browser company, on Monday, alleging it scraped the outlet’s copyrighted content and unlawfully distributed it to customers the suit names as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The suit also targets a Brave browser feature that bypasses paywalls and the company’s practice of blocking publishers’ ads while selling its own."}],"event.responsible_party":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The New York Times sued Brave, the 11-year-old, privacy-focused browser company, on Monday, alleging it scraped the outlet’s copyrighted content and unlawfully distributed it to customers the suit names as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere."}],"event.adversarial_actor":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The New York Times sued Brave, the 11-year-old, privacy-focused browser company, on Monday, alleging it scraped the outlet’s copyrighted content and unlawfully distributed it to customers the suit names as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The New York Times sued Brave, the 11-year-old, privacy-focused browser company, on Monday, alleging it scraped the outlet’s copyrighted content and unlawfully distributed it to customers the suit names as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The New York Times, which has also sued OpenAI and Perplexity over similar claims, likens Brave to a “supplier, dealer, and distributor of stolen copyrighted content” for AI companies."}],"event.agent_involved":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"It says Brave built an index of more than 30 billion webpages using an unidentified crawler, leaving publishers unable to block it."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The New York Times sued Brave, the 11-year-old, privacy-focused browser company, on Monday, alleging it scraped the outlet’s copyrighted content and unlawfully distributed it to customers the suit names as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere."}],"impact.harm_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The New York Times sued Brave, the 11-year-old, privacy-focused browser company, on Monday, alleging it scraped the outlet’s copyrighted content and unlawfully distributed it to customers the suit names as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere."}],"impact.affected_description":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The New York Times sued Brave, the 11-year-old, privacy-focused browser company, on Monday, alleging it scraped the outlet’s copyrighted content and unlawfully distributed it to customers the suit names as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The New York Times sued Brave, the 11-year-old, privacy-focused browser company, on Monday, alleging it scraped the outlet’s copyrighted content and unlawfully distributed it to customers the suit names as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere."}],"context.industry":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The New York Times sued Brave, the 11-year-old, privacy-focused browser company, on Monday, alleging it scraped the outlet’s copyrighted content and unlawfully distributed it to customers the suit names as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere."}],"context.country":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Both were brought in federal court in Manhattan."}],"context.regulatory":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The New York Times sued Brave, the 11-year-old, privacy-focused browser company, on Monday, alleging it scraped the outlet’s copyrighted content and unlawfully distributed it to customers the suit names as Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, xAI, and Cohere."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"The document is a press report on a copyright lawsuit against Brave; it does not describe an autonomous AI agent incident, so agent_involved is false and failure_class is null. No model name, version, harness, tools, guardrails, or autonomy arrangement is stated. No monetary damages figure, record count of affected works, or detection date is given; the $250 million figure is Brave's fundraising, not a loss, and is not recorded. The 30 billion webpage index is a scope figure for the crawler, not a count of affected third parties. The suit names AI companies as customers but does not allege an AI system failure. The separate Daily News/Chicago Tribune/Orlando Sentinel suit is mentioned but not described as a distinct incident with its own facts. incident_class is set to ip_infringement as the closest fit for alleged copyright misappropriation and redistribution. Extractor proposed values without quotes; dropped: ['event.detection_method', 'event.root_cause', 'event.trigger', 'system.autonomy_level', 'system.developer']. Single secondary source; corroborate before upgrading any field to B. [2026-11-03: evidence level set: Preliminary (1 report: TechCrunch · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":"Information","org_size_band":null,"country":"US","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":{"regimes":[],"notifications":null,"litigation_status":"filed","safety_policy_adherence":null},"coverage":null}}