News Corp Files Counterlawsuit Against Brave Software
July 21 – News Corp is taking legal action against Brave Software, responding to a lawsuit where Brave claimed its practices were lawful. News Corp accuses Brave of “flagrant theft” for allegedly distributing and selling versions of articles from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post to companies that develop AI.
Last year, Brave preemptively filed a lawsuit against News Corp after receiving a cease-and-desist notice from the media giant, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s family. In a recent filing in a federal court in Oakland, California, News Corp stated that Brave’s actions of secretly collecting and reselling its copyrighted articles do not align with fair use practices.
The lawsuit points out that “the more content Brave copies and sells, the more money it makes, while AI companies have less reason to seek licenses from the original publishers.” According to the suit, Brave profits at the expense of the publishers.
News Corp is asking for an injunction to stop Brave from this conduct, as well as unspecified monetary damages that could reach up to $150,000 for each infringement.
Brave and its attorneys have not commented on the situation outside of business hours.
These lawsuits reflect a growing trend where traditional publishers are challenging tech companies that utilize copyrighted material to support their AI initiatives.
Brave’s Stand Against News Corp
In March 2025, Brave sued News Corp, seeking court recognition that packaging copyrighted articles for licensing isn’t copyright infringement. They updated their complaint in May 2026 after what News Corp described as unsuccessful negotiations for a fair agreement.
Brave argues that indexing News Corp content to make it searchable and offering users short snippets and summaries falls under fair use. The San Francisco-based company has also claimed that News Corp is trying to hinder progress in generative AI, which many view as a significant innovation of this century.
Concerns Over Information Sharing
Robert Thomson, CEO of News Corp, commented that Brave’s actions indicate a “blatant disregard” for the way information is shared. He expressed that the current trend of “tacky tech trafficking” needs to end for journalism to thrive in the future.
Brave notes that it is the smallest U.S.-based company operating large-scale independent search engines, competing with giants like Google and Microsoft, which owns Bing. The New York Post, Dow Jones, and News Corp’s operations in the UK and Australia are also named in Brave’s lawsuit.
