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Bypass Paywalls: a browser extension to help bypass paywalls for selected sites

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Re: Bypass Paywalls: a browser extension to help bypass paywalls for selected sites

#121

Post by RC_ITR »

aezell wrote: post #67
hamaluik wrote: post #50

Is there a service in the same vein as music streaming, but for news outlets? I'd be happy to pay for a subscription somewhere at a reasonable price, but not happy to pay for and manage 150+ individual subscriptions (like what this tool provides). Granted I wouldn't ever actually sign up for most of them, but managing even more than a couple would be rather undesirable. Perhaps something with pay-per-view built in, g…

Apple News does this. Tons of magazines across the spectrum and number of larger US newspapers. If you aren't in the US or at least wanting to read in English, I don't know.

In general HN doesn't like apple's approach to news aggregating (i.e. a closed app rather than a 'super account' that works on native websites or an RSS-type feed) but +1

Re: Bypass Paywalls: a browser extension to help bypass paywalls for selected sites

#122

Post by criddell »

echelon wrote: post #17
makach wrote: post #6

An article worth reading is worth buying.

Except the industry is stuck in 1995. You want to pay $50/yr [1] for twenty different news websites? All I want to do is read one article. It needs a Spotify / Netflix model. Or the promise of micropayments that never happened. (Yeah, I'll pay 10 cents for an article. And also learn to distrust your site if you shill clickbait.) [1] NYT digital cost

What do you think of the Apple News model? It's something like $10 / month for access to 300 publications.

Re: Bypass Paywalls: a browser extension to help bypass paywalls for selected sites

#123

Post by annoyingnoob »

sethbannon wrote: post #24

I feel like I'm getting old. The youth ethos of "information should be free!" has been replaced with the reaction "gee, I really hope great journalism can make money, otherwise we won't have any".

Back in the day, the newsstand price for a newspaper, if you got it at the newsstand everyday of the week, was maybe $10-$11 a month. But you could get a subscription for less. You could also read the front page right there at the newsstand without paying anything. You could walk into just about any office building, especially any business with waiting room (like a doctor), and find the daily paper there to read for free. If you didn't want to pay for the paper then you could always find one - just ask someone that read theirs already. Back in the day news was plenty available for free, you just had to know where to look or ask.

Now there is no such thing as a free look. No one has a paper they already read to share. I'm all for paying for subscriptions but that alone does not bring the balance the world once had. Just try to figure out what say the LA Times will charge you after the 'introductory period' - and they won't tell you up front that you have to call to cancel and that the call will take like 30 minutes while they try to retain your business (after jacking up the price by many times after the intro period). And you probably cannot choose the length of your subscription, subscriptions now go on in perpetuity until you complete the onerous cancellation process. I have no love for the way modern news charges for its product and treats its customers. You can blame the internet and cheap people but that isn't the whole story.

Re: Bypass Paywalls: a browser extension to help bypass paywalls for selected sites

#124

Post by Karunamon »

adamc wrote: post #87
charcircuit wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of news channels exist fine on YouTube without paywalling all of their content. Also people will just report what's going on because they are interested in it. It doesn't require someone to be a "reporter" to talk about what's going on.

Good. Use those and don't steal from others.

Nobody's stealing anything. This is even a worse comparison than the industry groups make; in their case it's the wrong law (copyright infringement), in this case no law is being broken.

You don't get to put content out on the open internet and then cry foul when its accessed. These orgs are talking out of both sides of their mouth.

Re: Bypass Paywalls: a browser extension to help bypass paywalls for selected sites

#125

Post by bcj7393nsk »

mint2 wrote: post #108
endisneigh wrote: post #34

Do people generally feel like digital goods should be free? Seems like people are always trying to rationalize bypassing paywalls, pirating games and using emulators, torrenting movies, etc. It’s very ironic that this is a tech forum, much of which is software and this view is prevalent among some here

It is strange those making their living off coding and tech and are tech enthusiasts based on reading HN are also promoting ways to steal the income of others who make their living coding and tech and other knowledge based work.

> promoting ways to steal the income of others who make their living coding and tech and other knowledge based work.

Kill or be killed.

YC founders, Fortune 500 devs, and FAANG engineers:

1. pirate all kinds of shit (Sublime Text, FLAC songs, movies)

2. Improve their company’s software to prevent pirating and/or licensing detection

Not everyone on Earth is a saint.

Re: Bypass Paywalls: a browser extension to help bypass paywalls for selected sites

#126

Post by Wolfenstein98k »

I know I'll get downvoted for this but I feel like this stuff is pretty close to theft.

I can understand justifying ad-blocking, arguing that you don't want to see it. So even though you're depriving them of revenue while consuming the product funded by it, there's at least an argument that you're only controlling what you see.

But using tricks to get access to something not available to you without paying? This seems akin to sneaking into a movie theatre.

This isn't the equivalent of avoiding looking at something (your choice), it's the equivalent of breaking into a private business and pinching the products without paying.

(Cue the usual argument about IP, tangibles vs intangibles, and various dismissive remarks arising from cognitive dissonance)

Re: Bypass Paywalls: a browser extension to help bypass paywalls for selected sites

#127

Post by bcj7393nsk »

adamc wrote: post #87
charcircuit wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of news channels exist fine on YouTube without paywalling all of their content. Also people will just report what's going on because they are interested in it. It doesn't require someone to be a "reporter" to talk about what's going on.

Good. Use those and don't steal from others.

No post body was provided.

Re: Bypass Paywalls: a browser extension to help bypass paywalls for selected sites

#128

Post by aezell »

RC_ITR wrote: post #121
aezell wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple News does this. Tons of magazines across the spectrum and number of larger US newspapers. If you aren't in the US or at least wanting to read in English, I don't know.

In general HN doesn't like apple's approach to news aggregating (i.e. a closed app rather than a 'super account' that works on native websites or an RSS-type feed) but +1

I wouldn't rely on their aggregation. But, with a subscription, you can just read the magazines in the same format and layout as they are printed. No aggregation to get in the way.

Re: Bypass Paywalls: a browser extension to help bypass paywalls for selected sites

#129

Post by asteroidp »

sethbannon wrote: post #24

I feel like I'm getting old. The youth ethos of "information should be free!" has been replaced with the reaction "gee, I really hope great journalism can make money, otherwise we won't have any".

They should pick one: pay for it, OR fill the page with 50 shitty ads

You shouldn't have to deal with both

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