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Mozilla hit with takedown request for anti-paywall addons

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Re: Mozilla hit with takedown request for anti-paywall addons

#131

Post by bopbop »

IfOnlyYouKnew wrote: post #86
wpietri wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's obviously not a "request" if they're making legal threats. And it's not payment they're demanding, it's the ability to track anybody who visits their site, whether or not you agree to be tracked. And it's not part of any social contract I agreed to; the (very short) history of the web is an ongoing negotiation. Paywalls were invented this decade. This plugin is part of that negotiation. Browsers already have a m…

This is mostly about "soft" paywalls, allowing you to read maybe a dozen articles per month without paying. There is currently no way I know of allowing this functionality that is meaningfully "reliable". At least not without erecting new barriers such as mandatory registration (and verification). So you, and everyone else, seem to be demanding publishers just switch to "absolute paywalls". You will then have strictl…

This seems to be a classic example of an argument in which the ends don't justify the means (the means being allowing the lawsuits, the ends being publishers switch to "absolute paywalls")

It may mean that without a harsh letigious method, publishers do not offer "soft paywalls". It's more likely they will continue to do so to not be shut out of the market, AND we won't have waves of frivolous harsh lawsuits bankrupting independent developers.

The alternative you're proposing is to in effect be held to ransom by content providers - your argument could equally be made for any form of drm or appeasement (without root how do we know you are not recording this, wothout your location how do we know you are within our licensing area, without direct retinal scans how do we know who is really watching, etc)

Re: Mozilla hit with takedown request for anti-paywall addons

#132

Post by IfOnlyYouKnew »

Rumudiez wrote: post #120
sombragris wrote: post #118

What an utterly stupid trick. So, I didn't even know those extensions existed. Such arrogant behavior made me search and install one of these. Serves them right.

I always appreciate a good example of the Streisand effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

Also known as "don-t-you-dare-complain-about-this-mob-or-an-even-bigger-mob"

(...effect)

Re: Mozilla hit with takedown request for anti-paywall addons

#133

Post by iovrthoughtthis »

IfOnlyYouKnew wrote: post #121
nextgens wrote: post #114

I am the author of that add-on ... what would you do in my shoes ? - provide an XPI (that will only benefit the few since the side-loading process is made awkwarder at every point release) ? - fight it ? If so, on what grounds and how ? - something else ?

Stop enabling the destruction of journalism? That's an entirely serious suggestion. I'm not arguing that what you're doing is illegal. I have all sorts of qualms with copyright and its enforcement myself. If I were "copyright czar", movies would get three years, and newspapers maybe a week. But if we wish for copyright-holders to respect the rights of internet users, it would seem to be a winning proposition to maybe…

Chabge is hard. You can fight it or you can embrace it.

Sometimes embracing change requires letting go.

Re: Mozilla hit with takedown request for anti-paywall addons

#134

Post by dixie_land »

matt4077 wrote: post #18
decasteve wrote: post #5

This breaks the social contract of the web. If you publish on the web (over HTTP) using HTML (with or without css+js) then you respect the concept of a User-Agent that renders the content on behalf of the user. If you wish to get around this then create another file format and protocol and application/plugin to do so — one that enforces the DRM for the owner. Don’t take agency away from User-Agent.

There’s also a social contract about respect for the law. It’s arguably much older. It involves aspects like “following the spirit of the law”. Also “technical ability is not the same as permission”. It’s why the old shopkeeper’s waning ability to see is no license for you from the produce displayed outside. (This is mostly to show that I, too, can argue with invented “contracts”).

> technical ability is not the same as permission

Exactly. 99% arguments here are essentially the equivalent to "since Marriott/SPG are horrible at cyber security, I am ENTITLED to use stolen credit cards from their leaks."

Re: Mozilla hit with takedown request for anti-paywall addons

#135

Post by dao- »

kgwxd wrote: post #124
nextgens wrote: post #114

I am the author of that add-on ... what would you do in my shoes ? - provide an XPI (that will only benefit the few since the side-loading process is made awkwarder at every point release) ? - fight it ? If so, on what grounds and how ? - something else ?

Raly all your users to bug Mozilla about unbreaking side-loading. If addons really isnt supposed be a walled garden as they claim, they should be willing to open a discussion with the community about how to open things up so we can avoid legal bullying like this.

It's not gonna happen. Firefox would be dead by now if it still allowed bad or incompetent actors to make Firefox unusable (as in slow, unstable, and btw insecure), because users wouldn't keep up with that for too long. They'd just use another browser. This may be okay with you for now because you know how to protect yourself against malware, but in the long run Mozilla needs market share to stay relevant and be able to compete with the richest companies on this planet.

Re: Mozilla hit with takedown request for anti-paywall addons

#136

Post by liftbigweights »

IfOnlyYouKnew wrote: post #121
nextgens wrote: post #114

I am the author of that add-on ... what would you do in my shoes ? - provide an XPI (that will only benefit the few since the side-loading process is made awkwarder at every point release) ? - fight it ? If so, on what grounds and how ? - something else ?

Stop enabling the destruction of journalism? That's an entirely serious suggestion. I'm not arguing that what you're doing is illegal. I have all sorts of qualms with copyright and its enforcement myself. If I were "copyright czar", movies would get three years, and newspapers maybe a week. But if we wish for copyright-holders to respect the rights of internet users, it would seem to be a winning proposition to maybe…

[dead]

Re: Mozilla hit with takedown request for anti-paywall addons

#137

Post by gnomewascool »

nextgens wrote: post #114

I am the author of that add-on ... what would you do in my shoes ? - provide an XPI (that will only benefit the few since the side-loading process is made awkwarder at every point release) ? - fight it ? If so, on what grounds and how ? - something else ?

Firstly, thanks for the useful add-on!

> - provide an XPI (that will only benefit the few since the side-loading process is made awkwarder at every point release) ?

You could get your add-on signed as an "unlisted"[0] add-on and upload it to GitHub as a "release" (for which you can upload binary files[1]). This would make the add-on less easily discoverable (than it had been), but at least all Firefox users could install it without much of a hassle. OTOH if the add-on becomes popular again, take-down requests might be sent to you or GitHub.

[0] By unlisted I mean not publicly distributed via AMO; there's no restriction on distribution via other channels. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/Dis...

[1] https://help.github.com/articles/distributing-large-binaries...

Re: Mozilla hit with takedown request for anti-paywall addons

#138

Post by _em6m »

nextgens wrote: post #114

I am the author of that add-on ... what would you do in my shoes ? - provide an XPI (that will only benefit the few since the side-loading process is made awkwarder at every point release) ? - fight it ? If so, on what grounds and how ? - something else ?

How about stop the development? The fact that you can break the paywall (easily) doesn't give you the right to do it. Current laws (in that country) state that it's ilegal, so why do you insist in doing it?

Re: Mozilla hit with takedown request for anti-paywall addons

#139

Post by IfOnlyYouKnew »

iovrthoughtthis wrote: post #133
IfOnlyYouKnew wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop enabling the destruction of journalism? That's an entirely serious suggestion. I'm not arguing that what you're doing is illegal. I have all sorts of qualms with copyright and its enforcement myself. If I were "copyright czar", movies would get three years, and newspapers maybe a week. But if we wish for copyright-holders to respect the rights of internet users, it would seem to be a winning proposition to maybe…

Chabge is hard. You can fight it or you can embrace it. Sometimes embracing change requires letting go.

You do realize this argument is so vacuous, it would apply to someone torching your house, right?

Re: Mozilla hit with takedown request for anti-paywall addons

#140

Post by DarthTetanus »

IfOnlyYouKnew wrote: post #86
wpietri wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's obviously not a "request" if they're making legal threats. And it's not payment they're demanding, it's the ability to track anybody who visits their site, whether or not you agree to be tracked. And it's not part of any social contract I agreed to; the (very short) history of the web is an ongoing negotiation. Paywalls were invented this decade. This plugin is part of that negotiation. Browsers already have a m…

This is mostly about "soft" paywalls, allowing you to read maybe a dozen articles per month without paying. There is currently no way I know of allowing this functionality that is meaningfully "reliable". At least not without erecting new barriers such as mandatory registration (and verification). So you, and everyone else, seem to be demanding publishers just switch to "absolute paywalls". You will then have strictl…

Ideally, it would hasten society’s realization that the flow of information should not be subjected to capitalism.
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