News Corp Countersues Brave, Alleging 'Flagrant Theft' of Content for AI Training

News Corp has filed a countersuit against search engine operator Brave Software, accusing the tech company of copyright infringement and the "flagrant theft" of its content. The lawsuit alleges that Brave illegally scraped and resold articles from publications including The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post to companies developing artificial intelligence models.

The Countersuit's Allegations

In a filing submitted Tuesday in a federal court in Oakland, California, News Corp claims Brave's unauthorized "covert scraping" and resale of its copyrighted material falls far outside the legal protections of fair use. The media conglomerate is seeking an injunction to halt the practice and unspecified monetary damages, including potential statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringement.

The lawsuit argues that Brave's business model directly harms publishers by circumventing licensing negotiations. "The more content Brave copies and sells, the more revenue it generates, and the less incentive AI companies have to negotiate licenses with the publishers who produced the content," the filing states. "Brave profits while publishers are cut out."

Legal and Industry Context

This legal escalation is part of a broader industry-wide conflict between content creators and technology firms over the use of copyrighted materials for training generative AI. The dispute highlights the central role of the fair use doctrine, which Brave has invoked to defend its practices.

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The countersuit follows a preemptive lawsuit filed by Brave against News Corp in March 2025. Brave initiated its legal action after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from the media company, seeking a court declaration that its content aggregation and summarization practices were legal. According to News Corp, the latest filing comes after negotiations for a "fair, market-based agreement" failed.

Brave's Position

In its own legal filings, Brave has argued that its indexing of News Corp content to make it searchable, along with providing users with snippets and "high-level summaries," constitutes fair use. The San Francisco-based company has accused News Corp of attempting to disrupt the advancement of generative AI.

News Corp Chief Executive Robert Thomson issued a strong rebuke of Brave's actions. "This era of tacky tech trafficking must come to an end if journalism is to have a sustainable future," Thomson said in a statement, characterizing the alleged activity as a "blatant disregard" for the value of journalism.