The maker of ad-blocking browser Brave, which plans to give users the option to view ads in exchange for micropayments in bitcoin, has responded to a cease-and-desist letter it received today from members of a major newspaper trade group.
Seventeen members of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), including The New York Times , The Washington Post , and The Wall Street Journal, sent the letter to Brave, calling the business plan proposed for the browser "blatantly illegal".
The letter states: “Your plan to use our content to sell your advertising is indistinguishable from a plan to steal our content to publish on your own website.” Under Brave’s business model, publishers are given 55% of ad-revenue, with 15% apiece given to third-party advertising partners, ad viewers, and Brave itself. The team behind Brave, which includes Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich, has raised $2.5m to date.
The letter, a full copy of which was obtained by Business Insider , states that the newspapers would hold Brave liable for breach of contract and unfair competition, among other items.
"By engaging in Brave’s plan of advertising replacement, Brave is liable for breach of contract, unauthorized access to our websites, unfair competition, and other causes of action," the letter states.
CoinDesk has obtained Brave’s response to the NAA’s cease-and-desist letter, reproduced in its entirety below: "The NAA sent a letter to Brave Software that is filled with false assertions. The NAA has fundamentally misunderstood Brave. Brave is the solution, not the enemy. The NAA’s letter to Brave Software asserts that any browser that blocks and replaces ads on the browser user’s device performs "unauthorized republication" of Web content. This is false on its face, since browsers do not "republish", serve, syndicate, or distribute content across the Internet or to any computer other than the one on which they run. […]
