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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

#171

Post by netfortius »

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 fact in France quite a few major French, local and some international newspapers + tech + science + entertainment + + + magazines are free online with a library registration. The service is called Cafeyn, and you could bookmark, print or save as pdf pages of all publications available.

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

#172

Post by rfd4sgmk8u »

picardythird wrote: post #143
theturtletalks wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure it crosses the line. Most of these websites have the text in the HTML, but hidden to the user. This is so Google can index and send traffic based on search. If the HTML is sent to the client, accessing it is not piracy.

Just because there’s a technical workaround doesn’t make it not stealing. If I neglect to lock my car and my stuff gets stolen, it’s still stealing. I might have been able to prevent it had I locked the car, but it’s still stealing.

If a webserver sent me an exact copy of your car but encased in ice, and I used an ice pick to carve it out, you would still have your car, and i would have a copy of your car. That the web server wants to me buy a flame thrower to melt the ice is irrelivent.

Stealing does not apply to digital goods. You cannot deprive anyone of something infinitely replicable. You can only prevent those that you do not deem worthy to access it. and that attitude makes a person a bad person.

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

#173

Post by stall »

misterbwong wrote: post #110
theturtletalks wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure it crosses the line. Most of these websites have the text in the HTML, but hidden to the user. This is so Google can index and send traffic based on search. If the HTML is sent to the client, accessing it is not piracy.

I'm not quite understanding the logic here. Just because another customer (google) was given access, does that mean everyone should have it? Would you rather publishers give google private direct feeds to index?

Many of these paywalls simply have either the full body in the response or will return it if you ask with the right user agent (e.g. the one that google uses). These plugins then either remove some overlays or impersonate the google bot.

Obviously that’s not how it should be implemented and that‘s also not what google suggests you to do as a publisher. Instead you should verify that the bot is actually google https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/...

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

#174

Post by rfd4sgmk8u »

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

Yup!

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

#175

Post by ok123456 »

zdw wrote: post #52
yupper32 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I pay for NYT, but I can't subscribe to the paper of every article I want to read. I need some kind of group subscription for it to be feasible.

Ah, the NYT that helped justify the US invasion of Iraq based on falsehoods? That NYT? Edit: Explanation - the "I subscribe to the NYT" as a pat response to funding news sources puts far too much power in the NYT's hands, and they've proven to be less than trustworthy in the past.

Any kind of mainstream press will tow the line of national bias in order to keep their access to official channels and in turn their legitimacy.

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

#177

Post by stall »

muttled wrote: post #167
GekkePrutser wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sites offer the articles for free to search engines and the like, otherwise this wouldn't work. It's not that different from using archive.is etc Imo. Hacker news isn't usable without this anymore.

You bring up an interesting point that they offer it for free to search engines. Didn't it used to be against the rules of most search engines to "cloak" your content by serving one thing to the spiders and another to the general public? Edit: Found it. It's still against their rules. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/guideline... >

Well, google published https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/structure... which describes how it should be done

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

#178

Post by another_poster »

z3c0 wrote: post #69
another_poster wrote: post #21

PSA: Newspapers educate the public, and their services are essential for the functioning of our democracies. The best newspapers fund their operations through subscriptions, so please help society become well-informed by subscribing to your favorite newspapers.

Fair enough, but I often wonder if this new arrangement in the availability of quality information will cause any problems for the lower class. A lot of political rhetoric does gear itself towards the poor, after all.

Agreed, I think it’s currently causing problems in the US.

In theory public media like PBS and NPR should address the gap, but those organizations tend to depend on donations from the wealthy, so their coverage skews towards their interests and conversational style.

I think the government should provide newspaper subscription vouchers to the poor.

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

#179

Post by rfd4sgmk8u »

aezell wrote: post #72

Would you go into a store, pick up the newspaper, and walk out without paying?

"You wouldn't steal a baby. You wouldn't shoot a policeman and then steal his helmet. You wouldn't go to the toilet in his helmet and then send it to the policeman's grieving widow and then steal it again!"

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

#180

Post by jonwinstanley »

faridelnasire wrote: post #48

Maybe pick 1 or 2 newspapers you consider to be truthful to actually get a subscriptions for, besides using this addon. I get it, there are newspapers out there you really don't check out that often, and they have no free articles per month or "purchase this article", and paying 20 dollars for a subscription for 2 articles a month at 10 different newspapers is a little much. But the more people don't pay for news, th…

If all the best news sources are paywalled then most of the population won't have access. Not great for democracy.
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