U.S. newspapers threaten to sue Brave browser maker over ad-blocking scheme

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3054032/web-browsers/us-newspapers-threaten-to-sue-brave-browser-maker-over-ad-blocking-scheme.html

More than a dozen newspaper publishers yesterday threatened the maker of the new Brave browser with legal action if Brave Software goes ahead with plans to replace websites' ads with its own.

"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 [emphasis in original]," lawyers for 17 publishers wrote in a letter to Brave Software's founder and CEO, Brendan Eich.

The publishers represented more than 1,700 U.S. newspapers, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and those in the Gannett chain.

Brave, the browser launched as a preview in January, was built by a team led by Eich, the creator of JavaScript and formerly CTO at Mozilla -- which develops Firefox -- and for a brief stint in 2014, Mozilla's CEO. Eich resigned from Mozilla after a storm of protest over contributions he made in 2008 to supporters of California's Proposition 8, a ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage.