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Why Paywalls Need To Be So Fragile (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Despite the ferment that occurs when yet another digital publisher paywalls a news-site, most paywalls are absurdly easy to circumvent, even using no other software than a web-browser, because of the need to present unrestricted content to the search engines that publicise it. None of the parties involved are considering anyone else's point of view: Google wants free flow of information funded by merit-based advertising revenue; publishers want to restore consumer lock-in in a network environment of story-led consumers who have completely abandoned the concept; and Apple is fine with content-blocking, since it just wants to sell hardware.
Yup, the back button us my usual response to that.
While I'm there I add any sites to my ScriptSafe and HTTP Switchboard definitions.
The rest isn't my problem, and I pose no further burden to the website.
Everybody is happy.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Might be a good idea to have a list of these, and a browser plugin that colors any link to a paywalled (or obnoxiously overloaded/toxified with ads) in an obvious way. Bright red on black would do it for me. :)
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
In the Netherlands we have a site called "blendle", which offers access to paid content on a large variety of news material. This gets rid of the transaction fees, and a lot of people seem to like it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... / www.blendle.com