Remember the other day we reported about the Brave browser that paid users if they were willing to see ads during their web surfing sessions? These ads are ads that the company deems more suitable, and in turn they will pay its users in Bitcoin for their efforts. Unsurprisingly many publishers weren’t thrilled.So much so that it seems that a group of newspaper publishers in the US, 17 to be exact, have since co-signed a cease and desist letter and sent it to Brave’s company. According to parts of the letter, “You are hereby notified that Brave’s plan to replace our clients’ paid advertising content with its own advertising violates the law, and the undersigned publishers intend to fully enforce their rights. 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.”
The letter goes on to add that they will be seeking legal action should the company continue to pursue their plan. “We stand ready to enforce all legal rights to protect our trademarks and copyrighted content and to prevent you from deceiving consumers and unlawfully appropriating our work in the service of your business.”
For those unfamiliar, Brave is a browser that was launched earlier this year by ex-Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich. Just like some of today’s more modern browsers, Brave will come with ad-blocking enabled by default, but the company’s plans to replace ads and pay its users has taken it one step further. At the moment it is unclear as to how Brave plans to respond to this letter.