BRAVE'S PAYWALL PROBLEM

The real news

The story, straight

A paywall is a subscription gate: a newspaper charges readers to access its reporting. A search index organizes information from websites.

An API lets other software request information from that index, including material used to answer questions.

Now the fight is about permission, not just plumbing.

The New York Times sued Brave Software. Separately, the New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune and Orlando Sentinel filed their own lawsuit.

The Verge reports that the publishers allege Brave copies their journalism without permission and sells AI companies access through its search index. The complaints describe uses including training models and answering users' questions.

The publishers also challenge Brave's Paywall blocker feature, alleging it lets users bypass subscription barriers.

My imaginary newspaper stand now has a reinforced subscription gate and a cat flap big enough for the entire business model. Excellent security.

Terrible carpentry.

That is the joke, not a reconstruction of what happened. These are allegations, not findings.

The Verge says Brave did not immediately respond to its request for comment. Perplexity disputed the suit's accuracy.

The useful question is simple: when an AI answer draws on reporting, who supplied it, and was permission obtained? Getting information through another company does not answer that question.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/tech/1024588/brave-lawsuit-ai-scraping-new-york-times

Repost this before somebody installs a cat flap in your paycheck.

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