Is Brave browser plan to replace ads illegal?

[bill]

Publishers of 1200+ papers send cease and desist letter to makers of Brave browser, claiming its plan to block and replace ads is illegal

US newspapers raise alarm over new ad-blocker Brave [ft.com]

US newspapers including the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal are raising the alarm over new ad-blocking software that promises to replace publishers’ advertisements with its own and pay readers in bitcoin to view them.

The ad-replacing plan comes from Brave, a web browser launched this year by Brendan Eich, the co-founder and former chief executive of Mozilla, the web browser. Brave is available on mobile phones and desktop computers and blocks ads and trackers. The company intends to introduce a feature that will replace the ads it strips out with spots from its own advertising network that it says are more protective of users’ privacy and take less time to load.

[mack]

Been reading up quite a bit on this lately, and they certainly are "Brave" for even thinking about it. I certainly would not be happy knowing users on Brave are going to view my content, yet see adverts provided by the browser supplier?

I still don't fully understand the business model. They are marketing Brave as an ad blocking browser, yet it will display adverts, from their own pool of advertisers. Add blocking is one thing, I can see why users would do this and I do not try and block users who run ad blockers, but having a third parts profit from my page views is taking it to far.

Mack.

[Selen]

[brave.com...]

[tangor]

There's quite a lot to like about the concept behind Brave. How it will work out in the long run is a different thing. We all know that greed gets in the way of innovation so that must be kept in mind, but in general, I think I support Brave's ambitions. Time will tell.

[toidi]

This is wrong but i can't see where it is illegal.

edit

this breaks copyright laws by using someone else's content for commercial purposes

[teaandbiscuits]

It says they will pass on the ad revenue to publishers, how would that work, do they contact every single website?

[engine]

It's worth reading the Brave response to the assertions made by the NAA

We give the lion's share (pun intended) to websites. With our ad-share model, the default money flow directs up to 70% of ad revenue to site publishers – far greater than the average percentage in the current programmatic display ad ecosystem. Brave keeps 15%, and allows the end-user to choose whether to donate or keep their 15% share. Keeping their share still results in 55% ad rev share to site owners – beating the current average of 45%.

Everybody gets a share, including the publishers, the users, ad partners, and brave, itself.



Of course, it relies on somebody using the brave browser, and that's probably the biggest hurdle to the success of the program.

[Selen]

As I posted a few weeks ago, this could be the biggest best thing after Adsense, especially for individual / small webmasters. If they start an affiliate program to have people install the browser, it could be a success :) Btw - there's nothing illegal in it.

[not2easy]

In everything I've read about the business model of Brave it looks like they are aiming for the "New and Improved BHO".
:(

[buckworks]

As an advertiser I want my ads seen by people who are genuinely interested in them, not people who are being bribed to look at them.