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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

#221

Post by seanp2k2 »

asteroidp wrote: post #129
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

Not doing both = money left on the table. Game theory says they will as long as they can, as in the extra $ outweighs the subscriber loss. It’s terrible that the brand damage isn’t weighted more heavily and the calculations seem to be so short-sighted, but that’s where we are I guess.

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

#222

Post by seanp2k2 »

dahpu wrote: post #204
cobbaut wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry but this is not true. I canceled my NYTimes subscription online, in a less than two minute chat.

Why do you have to chat and interact with someone in the first place?

I know this is rhetorical but yeah; retention games. I’m guessing that many of these places do weigh the brand reputation hit of doing stuff like this but just don’t think it’s that important or valuable. I do. I don’t support companies that play these games, which makes it extra upsetting that I literally do not have a competitive choice vs Comcast for home internet. I can get 768K DSL through ATT, or 1300/45 from Comcast. They’re about the same price. No FTTH, no Sonic, wireless options are under 50mbit down, etc.

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

#223

Post by seanp2k2 »

Wolfenstein98k wrote: post #126

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 seem…

It’s the same age-old piracy problem that Spotify, Netflix, Apple Music, Disney+, etc have mostly solved. Make a product worth paying for and more convenient than piracy and people will pay a reasonable price for it. Shove ads down peoples throats and play games with hard-to-cancel subscriptions / BS pricing and people will correctly value your product near worthless and act accordingly. It’s up to you as a company to prove your value to users. Throwing up a paywall that is easy to defeat protecting content that isn’t worth much in the first place and is riddled with ads is a great way of telling consumers that they shouldn’t trust you.

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

#224

Post by webmaven »

picardythird wrote: post #218
LocalH wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think that people should be required to view websites as delivered, without modifying them in any way? That would be the logical end of attempting to prevent this kind of "stealing". If there is another term you'd like to use for "looks like theft, but the original owner loses nothing" then feel free. But it is not theft or stealing, those require also depriving the rightful owner of the stolen property. If I…

If I walk in to a record store and buy a CD, I'm not just paying for the paper and plastic that it's made of. I'm paying the record company, the record store, and the artist for their time and talent. With a digital goods, we can eliminate the paper and plastic. It's a great thing! But for some reason, we've also decided to write the artist out of the equation too. At least if you're a pirate. If you're a software en…

> What's the difference between pirating music and stealing code that is under a software license?

If by "stealing code" you mean creating and distributing (probably selling) software derived from it that violates the license, it is quite different.

If what you mean is simply downloading warez for your own use, it is more or less the same.

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

#225

Post by seanp2k2 »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #214
Wolfenstein98k wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ad-blocking can be justified as the digital equivalent of averting your gaze, although I agree that's a bit tenuous as it's preventing the ad from rendering in the first place. It's marginal. But by analogy, it's like putting your TV on mute when the ads are playing - the producer made the show freely available expecting ad consumption. But using a tool to get past a paywall is different. The show is not on TV, it is…

> But by analogy, it's like putting your TV on mute when the ads are playing - the producer made the show freely available expecting ad consumption. The difference is that you need to actively mute your TV every time! You're probably not going to do it for every commercial break, and even if you do, you'll likely catch at least a bit of the first ad. It's really that first ad's fault for not grabbing your attention q…

TIVO has had the ability to skip ads for about 20 years now IIRC. I have a bandwidth cap on Comcast and don’t want ads to count, however insignificantly, against that. I also don’t trust JS and companies from ad networks to respect my privacy or keep data they collect about me safe. I’d rather (and I do) just black hole route all their junk from known ad networks on a DNS level and let ublock handle anything that does manage to sneak through. If they’re going to go through the trouble of making that not work, they’re probably not worth my time visiting.

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

#226

Post by picardythird »

webmaven wrote: post #224
picardythird wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I walk in to a record store and buy a CD, I'm not just paying for the paper and plastic that it's made of. I'm paying the record company, the record store, and the artist for their time and talent. With a digital goods, we can eliminate the paper and plastic. It's a great thing! But for some reason, we've also decided to write the artist out of the equation too. At least if you're a pirate. If you're a software en…

> What's the difference between pirating music and stealing code that is under a software license? If by "stealing code" you mean creating and distributing (probably selling) software derived from it that violates the license, it is quite different. If what you mean is simply downloading warez for your own use, it is more or less the same.

So are you against torrenting copyrighted digital goods then? Because people do exactly that. They steal intellectual property and distribute it for other people to use.

Stealing for personal use may be a more minor thing, but it still boggles me that people want to consume the fruits of others' labor without compensating them in anyway, as if creators are slaves who exist only to please.

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

#227

Post by Wowfunhappy »

seanp2k2 wrote: post #225
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But by analogy, it's like putting your TV on mute when the ads are playing - the producer made the show freely available expecting ad consumption. The difference is that you need to actively mute your TV every time! You're probably not going to do it for every commercial break, and even if you do, you'll likely catch at least a bit of the first ad. It's really that first ad's fault for not grabbing your attention q…

TIVO has had the ability to skip ads for about 20 years now IIRC. I have a bandwidth cap on Comcast and don’t want ads to count, however insignificantly, against that. I also don’t trust JS and companies from ad networks to respect my privacy or keep data they collect about me safe. I’d rather (and I do) just black hole route all their junk from known ad networks on a DNS level and let ublock handle anything that doe…

> TIVO has had the ability to skip ads for about 20 years now IIRC.

Does TIVO skip automatically, though? I know that when Dish tried to do that in 2015, the TV networks sued. Don't remember who won, but I'd personally be somewhat sympathetic to the TV networks.

---

It's not about you. Websites are selling a product for a price; you're jumping the turnstile and saying it's okay because the fare was too high anyway. By all means, don't visit websites with overly intrusive ads, let the the price and demand curves even themselves out.

Or, if you do block ads—because I get it, the world is imperfect—at least acknowledge that what you're doing isn't entirely ethical or fair, and stop encouraging others to do the same.

This is usually a topic I try to avoid on HN because it feels like such a loosing battle, but somehow I walked into this one. :)

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

#228

Post by webmaven »

picardythird wrote: post #226
webmaven wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's the difference between pirating music and stealing code that is under a software license? If by "stealing code" you mean creating and distributing (probably selling) software derived from it that violates the license, it is quite different. If what you mean is simply downloading warez for your own use, it is more or less the same.

So are you against torrenting copyrighted digital goods then? Because people do exactly that. They steal intellectual property and distribute it for other people to use. Stealing for personal use may be a more minor thing, but it still boggles me that people want to consume the fruits of others' labor without compensating them in anyway, as if creators are slaves who exist only to please.

I made no claim about the relative morality of piracy vs. license violations.

But I will note that you are (by using the framing of "stealing") implying that piracy results in lost sales, which is largely not the case, except possibly for the most popular works. See "Piracy is Progressive Taxation":

https://www.oreilly.com/content/piracy-is-progressive-taxati...

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

#229

Post by picardythird »

webmaven wrote: post #228
picardythird wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So are you against torrenting copyrighted digital goods then? Because people do exactly that. They steal intellectual property and distribute it for other people to use. Stealing for personal use may be a more minor thing, but it still boggles me that people want to consume the fruits of others' labor without compensating them in anyway, as if creators are slaves who exist only to please.

I made no claim about the relative morality of piracy vs. license violations. But I will note that you are (by using the framing of "stealing") implying that piracy results in lost sales, which is largely not the case, except possibly for the most popular works. See "Piracy is Progressive Taxation": https://www.oreilly.com/content/piracy-is-progressive-taxati...

If a publisher or author doesn't mind, as is the case with the article you linked, that's fantastic. O'reilly is a good business. But it's still stealing. I think if you have the money, you should pay for the product. It's one thing for a teenager to download a bunch of songs on Kazaa in 2000. But I don't understand why so many self respecting adult knowledge workers feel the need to pirate things they can afford just because they can. Seems entitled and disrespectful to me.

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

#230

Post by Daffodils »

cercatrova wrote: post #42

FYI use the clean version which removes Google analytics. It's also updated more frequently while the one in the link is almost a year old: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean I use this, and it's great. I recommend using uBlock Origin as well to remove ads on these sites.

+1, this version is better. And Magnolia1234 is more helpful and polite towards her users. Would recommend.
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