Canada has been a leader on smart media policy, but when it comes to reining in the theft of news content by artificial intelligence companies, it has been a laggard.
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it → come → companies
Under its laissez-faire approach to date, the theft of news content is happening on an industrial scale.
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theft → happen → scale
Against this backdrop, over the past couple years, several large leading Canadian companies have entered into strategic partnerships with AI companies.
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companies → lead → companies
Some have done so with great fanfare, making bold claims of sovereign AI.
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Some → do → AI
But the sellers didn’t create that content, nor did they licence it.
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they → create → it
They stole it and are passing it off as their own creation.
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They → steal → creation
Corporate Canada’s chief legal officers, chief financial officers and chief corporate communications officers should carefully study the legal strategy unleashed by Robert Thomson, chief executive officer of News Corp.
During the news giant’s latest earnings call, Thomson told investors he expects “compelling, cash-rich” revenue from its legal war on AI — and that he’s stepping up the fight.
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he → study → fight
He will now be suing not only the tech firms that scrape News Corp.’s journalism, but the customers who buy the stolen intellectual property, too.
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who → sue → property
He’s escalating his combative “woo and sue” doctrine.
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He → escalate → doctrine
It’s seen him licence news to those who pay, and drag those who don’t into court for years.
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who → see → years
Litigation “is far from over,” he promised, adding that existing suits were spawning what he called “cash-rich legal sequels.”
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he → promise → what
And he put browser company Brave in the crosshairs next saying it was “brave in name only.”
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it → put → name
And anyone purchasing News Corp.’s scraped content “should know that they are in possession of stolen goods,” he warned.
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he → purchase → goods
“This will certainly not be the last litigation related to AI,” he told investors at its latest earnings call.
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he → relate → call
“We’re focusing not just on companies that have scraped and stolen our content, but on their clients who knowingly or unknowingly have purchased stolen goods.”
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who → focus → goods
Thomson’s outspoken attack on Brave is the latest salvo in an increasingly fierce fight with the privacy-first browser, but it was Brave that went to court first.
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that → go → court
In March 2025, News Corp.’s lawyers fired off a cease-and-desist accusing Brave of infringement, threatening legal action and demanding compensation.
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lawyers → fire → compensation
Brave ran to court and urged the judge to throw it out, using America’s fair use exemption on copyright.
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Brave → run → copyright
Brave’s lawyers cast the Murdoch empire as the aggressor, accusing it of “an anticompetitive bullying campaign, built on an incorrect legal premise.”
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lawyers → cast → premise
It argued News Corp. was waging a war on privacy by going after the little guy while partnering with search giant Google.
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Corp. → argue → Google
Last month, News Corp. returned fire, branding Brave’s “covert scraping” as “flagrant theft.”
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Corp. → return → theft
Its counter-suit alleged Brave used masked crawlers to dodge being blocked, then resold News Corp.’ articles and IP to AI firms.
“The more content Brave copies and sells, the more revenue it generates, and the less incentive AI companies have to negotiate licenses with the publishers who produced the content,” the suit argued.
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suit → allege → content
“Brave profits while publishers are cut out.”
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publishers → profit → ?
News Corp. has sought an injunction and up to $150,000 per infringement.
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Corp. → seek → infringement
Thomson branded Brave’s conduct content laundering and “tacky tech trafficking” that “must come to an end if journalism is to have a sustainable future.”
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journalism → brand → future
He doubled down: “Their scheming started with masked web crawlers scanning our pages to ingest copyrighted articles and continued when they repackaged those stolen files and delivered near verbatim copies.
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they → double → copies
Then he upped the ante by widening the threat to Brave’s customers.
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he → up → customers
“Companies who buy from these pirates should know that they are in possession of stolen goods” — opening a new front for more claims for damages.
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they → buy → damages
Thomson flagged that damages from legal actions were now seen as a revenue stream for News Corp., as the AI economy emerges.
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economy → flag → Corp.
The boards of directors of large Canadian public companies should be asking tough questions of management.
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boards → ask → management
Are you buying stolen IP?
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you → buy → IP
What due diligence did you do?
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you → do → diligence
Canada’s federally regulated industries should not be doing business with pirates.
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industries → regulate → pirates
Canadian IP must be protected.
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IP → protect → ?
The Aporia
