[NA] Paywall removal tools

As kind of an IT tech person, I don't think it's so much a technical question as a legal question.

That said, if it's a case of a site that gives you X free visits and then makes you pay, it would seem to me to be pretty easy to spoof that. I don't do it myself because I kinda hate the concept of paywalls, so I do my best to block suggestions that point to them on the devices I have. Ad based content is bad enough.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Do they work?
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Why bother. Unless you're trying to read some very specific content vs. a news article, the info is going to be available somewhere else.

If it's not available today, do a search for it tomorrow and you're bound to find it on a site that is free.
 
M20K said:
Why bother. Unless you're trying to read some very specific content vs. a news article, the info is going to be available somewhere else.

If it's not available today, do a search for it tomorrow and you're bound to find it on a site that is free.
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You nailed it.
Often I want to see what that particular journalist has to say about a topic.

And I don’t want to wait till tomorrow.
 
Recent versions of the Safari browser (Mac/iPhone) have a built-in feature called "hide distracting items". It seems to work on a few paywalls. "Reader View" (F9 on most browsers) also seems to be fairly effective sometimes.
 
Another way is to prefix "archive.is/" to the beginning of any URL, i.e. "archive.is/https://somewebsite.com". It doesn't always work but it often does.
 
I normally just go incognito and Google the article, then for whatever reason that usually makes the website willing to serve it up. Not always, but good hit rate.

I'm still waiting for someone to invent a pay-per-view news app. I'll happily pay $1-5 per article so journalists get comped for their work. I'm just not signing up for monthly stuff from 20 services.
 
Albany Tom said:
As kind of an IT tech person, I don't think it's so much a technical question as a legal question.

That said, if it's a case of a site that gives you X free visits and then makes you pay, it would seem to me to be pretty easy to spoof that. I don't do it myself because I kinda hate the concept of paywalls, so I do my best to block suggestions that point to them on the devices I have. Ad based content is bad enough.
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Yep. It's theft; so is ad blocking, if the content you are watching is dependent on those ads.
 
I think most people would be willing to pay a little for news but most of us also probably read things from dozens of different sites and not frequently enough from any one to justify a subscription. Most of us also already have more accounts- free and paid than we really want to have to manage. Apple probably has the best solution to this with their news subscription service but even that has limitations- not every site is a part of it, it only works on apple devices, etc.

If I had the connections/clout to do it I had the idea of having a service where you could just click to pay a few cents to view an article without signing up/subscribing/sharing data with anyone besides the payment service it's self.
 
cowman said:
I think most people would be willing to pay a little for news but most of us also probably read things from dozens of different sites and not frequently enough from any one to justify a subscription. Most of us also already have more accounts- free and paid than we really want to have to manage. Apple probably has the best solution to this with their news subscription service but even that has limitations- not every site is a part of it, it only works on apple devices, etc.

If I had the connections/clout to do it I had the idea of having a service where you could just click to pay a few cents to view an article without signing up/subscribing/sharing data with anyone besides the payment service it's self.
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I wish sports would work the same way! Same issue there.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Yep. It's theft; so is ad blocking, if the content you are watching is dependent on those ads.
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Perhaps there is a case to be made for that. I usually just wait a day or two if it's an article I really want to read, then use https://archive.is to pull down an archived copy. It doesn't work everywhere, some sites block archiving.

My thinking is that the ads pay for 'right now' access to the content. Once it's been archived, it's up for grabs.

Am I rationalizing? Perhaps there is a case to be made for that, too. :)
 
sarangan said:
if its worth reading, then you should pay for it.
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If it's worth publishing then it shouldn't be buried in a vomit of ads.

Put something tasteful and relevant to me, fine.

But, at some point it stops being a website and starts being a hostage situation. "You want the article? First, watch this ad. Now close this popup. Now disable your ad blocker. Now take this survey. Now watch another ad. Now prove you're not a robot"

The internet used to be a library. Now it's a guy in a trench coat chasing you through the library whispering about mattresses.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Yep. It's theft; so is ad blocking, if the content you are watching is dependent on those ads.
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That's a hot take. If I pick up a free newspaper, but discard the ad inserts, is that "theft" too? At what point does not reading the ads turn a legal transaction into "theft"? Do I have to read ALL the ads to avoid getting arrested, or is there a threshold?

It's not "theft" for me to take what the author or publisher makes freely available, whether or not I choose to keep some or all of what is offered. I'm not responsible for how well or poorly the publisher's business model pays them.
 
sarangan said:
if its worth reading, then you should pay for it.
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If I find an author or media source that is consistently reporting only facts without spin, without their interpretation of who is right or wrong, and not suggesting what ‘side’ I should take, lacking manufactured outrage, with a least a paucity of accuracy, and presenting all sides equally, then I’ll happily pay.
Currently, I sample to test the offerings.
Nothing but disappointment so far.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Yep. It's theft; so is ad blocking, if the content you are watching is dependent on those ads.
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For every click they're making money. The pay to read is because they think they should make more money.

I don't have a problem with that, but I should be able to block those people that require me to pay to read. And in most cases we do not have that ability. So if someone is going to put their article in front of me, I have no problem blocking any popups they also want to put in front of me. They still get their money from all the side ads and just for the click, it's just not the extra money, but then again, I should be able to say do not show me any pay to read articles. Same as I can decide not to walk over to a news stand to buy a magazine.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
If I find an author or media source that is consistently reporting only facts without spin, without their interpretation of who is right or wrong, and not suggesting what ‘side’ I should take, lacking manufactured outrage, with a least a paucity of accuracy, and presenting all sides equally, then I’ll happily pay.
Currently, I sample to test the offerings.
Nothing but disappointment so far.
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https://ground.news/ should help
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Yep. It's theft; so is ad blocking, if the content you are watching is dependent on those ads.
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So if I mute my TV or change channels to avoid ads, am I stealing the content from CBS? If I watch shows on PBS but don't contribute to the local station's fund raiser, am I stealing those shows?
 
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Let'sgoflying! said:
If I find an author or media source that is consistently reporting only facts without spin, without their interpretation of who is right or wrong, and not suggesting what ‘side’ I should take, lacking manufactured outrage, with a least a paucity of accuracy, and presenting all sides equally, then I’ll happily pay.
Currently, I sample to test the offerings.
Nothing but disappointment so far.
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I am 100% with you on that. I was commenting on articles worth reading without all the spammy advertising. My favorite was IFR Magazine, a brief 20 some page magazine with absolutely no advertising or agenda. Just packed full of useful information. It's demise last year was a tragedy.
 
The link I posted worked.

I got to thinking another reason for this is sites like the one I just accessed wanting me to subscribe for an extended time 12mo when I know I would never use it.
Might be better to have the option to buy an article at a time, or even make donations.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Yep. It's theft; so is ad blocking, if the content you are watching is dependent on those ads.
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I think there should be other ways to support content creators and sometimes there are. Most ads are brain rot at this point, there need to be other ways.
 
FrequentPilot said:
I think there should be other ways to support content creators and sometimes there are. Most ads are brain rot at this point, there need to be other ways.
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There are a few other ways. Very few use them.

patreon for online. voluntary subscriptions for conventional media (e.g. npr, pbs)
youtube red
super chats
substack

some problems are that ads are ingrained in our culture. they have been around since the beginning of time. they a proven. they serve the needs of content creators with almost any audience size, from a few thousand to tens of millions. multiple marketpaces exist to match ads with creator and ads with consumers.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Yep. It's theft; so is ad blocking, if the content you are watching is dependent on those ads.
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A lot, probably most, of those pop-up ads have nothing to do with the content creator. They are usually from whatever site you went to that is reposting the link.

Some sites run some ads to cover their costs. Many bombard you to make as much as they can off of every click.
 
172andyou said:
There are a few other ways. Very few use them.

patreon for online. voluntary subscriptions for conventional media (e.g. npr, pbs)
youtube red
super chats
substack

some problems are that ads are ingrained in our culture. they have been around since the beginning of time. they a proven. they serve the needs of content creators with almost any audience size, from a few thousand to tens of millions. multiple marketpaces exist to match ads with creator and ads with consumers.
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I would rather use those. Ads
172andyou said:
There are a few other ways. Very few use them.

patreon for online. voluntary subscriptions for conventional media (e.g. npr, pbs)
youtube red
super chats
substack

some problems are that ads are ingrained in our culture. they have been around since the beginning of time. they a proven. they serve the needs of content creators with almost any audience size, from a few thousand to tens of millions. multiple marketpaces exist to match ads with creator and ads with consumers.
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I would rather use those. Ads harm our society rather than benefit it. Just because something is easy doesn’t mean it’s beneficial.
 
FrequentPilot said:
I would rather use those. Ads

I would rather use those. Ads harm our society rather than benefit it. Just because something is easy doesn’t mean it’s beneficial.
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Yep. I'm also in the minority that pays to be ad free. From a business perspective it's important to remember that people like us are in the minority.
 
172andyou said:
Yep. I'm also in the minority that pays to be ad free. From a business perspective it's important to remember that people like us are in the minority.
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That goes without saying. People who are smart enough to be right are always in the minority :lol:
 
172andyou said:
But, at some point it stops being a website and starts being a hostage situation. "You want the article? First, watch this ad.
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Everything is an advertising platform, nothing more. Newspapers, websites, TV, radio, YouTube. All advertising platforms, nothing more.
 
mryan75 said:
Everything is an advertising platform, nothing more. Newspapers, websites, TV, radio, YouTube. All advertising platforms, nothing more.
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Nah. That's way too dark of a world view. There are high quality newspapers, websites and youtube channels that depend on ads for at least some of their revenue, but are also high quality sources of news and/or entertainment.
 
172andyou said:
Nah. That's way too dark of a world view. There are high quality newspapers, websites and youtube channels that depend on ads for at least some of their revenue, but are also high quality sources of news and/or entertainment.
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I didn’t say they weren’t high quality content sources. I have 20,000 subscribers on YT and produce good quality content. But YT pays me to keep people watching so they can run ads. Nothing more, nothing less. They couldn’t care less if I were explaining quantum physics or streaming my cat. If I had a cat. All they care is that I keep people watching so they can run ads.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Yep. It's theft; so is ad blocking, if the content you are watching is dependent on those ads.
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Ad blocking is illegal? that's a new one. Courts have held consumers have the right to stop content they do not wish to see.

What IS illegal is what OP posted. The publisher enacted technical barriers to enable them to control the access to content. The app above circumvents this.

Analogy: You are in a store, you are free to walk around. But you cannot pick the lock and open a door just because you want to enter.

The DMCA is the controlling precedent. An ad in a corner of a page is not there to control your access to content. But a login/paywall definitely is there to control access.

Some paywalls are stupid simple to bypass. Others not so much. That's the the legal issue. Its that the creator has put in a barrier to prevent access and you bypass/defeat it.
 
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