
Four JavaScript Lines to Defeat New York Times Paywall - privacyguru
http://toys.euri.ca/nyt.js
======
donohoe
And in about 4 lines of code I can use a timeout or _PeriodicalExecuter_ to
periodically check the the visibility of these elements and revert them if
necessary.

I can have it deployed on <http://graphics8.nytimes.com/js/common.js> which is
on every page within the next 20 minutes (if I skipped code review etc). Any
developer here at the Times could do that and anything else that was required.

The point is I won't.

We'd rather fix bugs that affect our readers and work on making the site
better. Thats much more rewarding.

However if you feel that the Times content is worth writing a new browser
extension for, or all the hours you spend keeping on top of updating code as
we change DIV id and class names.... then maybe, just maybe, there might be
something on the Times site of value?

Maybe worth (dare I say it...) actually paying for.... ? _Gasp!_

 _UPDATE: Hi NiemanLab & This is just my own personal opinion :)_

~~~
ebiester
1\. This is more for the amusement of people who don't care, who will buy or
not buy based on the value proposition. It's not the professional who is going
to take advantage of this -- those of us in startup mode don't need the time
sink of keeping up with the news, those of us not in startup mode have the
money to buy.

2\. That said, this _is_ useful for the high school or college student who
doesn't have the 20 dollars to spend.

I'd be more worried about people bypassing your page and just emailing the
articles to each other, actually.

~~~
donohoe
_That said, this is useful for the high school or college student who doesn't
have the 20 dollars to spend_

I hear that a lot. Lots of people can't afford a subscription. I understand
that.

A lot of the same people say its too much yet they spend more at Starbucks for
their daily Venti, sugar-free, non-fat, vanilla soy, double shot, decaf, no
foam, extra hot, Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha with light whip and extra
syrup :)

~~~
ceejayoz
Sure, but there aren't a half dozen coffee shops giving away free drinks on
either side of Starbucks.

~~~
donohoe
I wish those 'coffee' shops that are doing their own original reporting and
embedding journalists in war zones and covering the costs associated it with
that the very best of luck in making money and staying in business as the
print market shrinks.

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fletchowns
Pretty disturbing how eager and willing HN readers are to circumvent the NYT
paywall. Who cares how easy it is, if you like what they have to offer and
want to see more of it, pay them for it. It costs money to produce quality
content like that. It's not like the majority of the money is going to a bunch
of crooks like in the music industry. It's like people that listen to public
radio every day that don't support their local member stations, even though
they have the money to do so...despicable!

~~~
tomjen3
I disagree with you about the quality of the content, but the only reason I
would care to break that security is to show that I could, for the
intellectual challenge of it.

~~~
fletchowns
You call that a challenge?

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404error
In theory, is this conversation similar to a group of people discussing the
easiest way to break into a car?

~~~
baddox
I don't think so. I consider computer network traffic a lot different from the
"unlocked door" analogy of physical property. Sure, you don't have permission
to enter someone's home just because their door was unlocked or you found a
clever way in. However, when you make a request to a web server and it returns
a bunch of text that your browser renders as text/graphics, I think it's
perfectly okay to change the way that rendering works.

~~~
tomkarlo
True, but you're consenting to the terms of use of the provider in requesting
that content. It's not just "text", it's content you've licensed from them for
your use in keeping with a number of legal obligations (part of which, I'm
guessing, is to not disable components intended to limit your consumption as a
non-subscriber.) So it's not that clear cut.

Similarly, you could argue that when someone sends a movie to your home to
watch over cable, you could do anything you want with a dvr recording of it.
But we know that's not an argument that actually holds any water, legally or
ethically.

~~~
baddox
Actually, the US Supreme Court decided in _Sony vs. Universal_ (in 1984) that
when someone sends a movie to your home, you _do_ have the right to record it
for subsequent (non-commercial) viewings.

Merely reading a news article is certainly non-commercial, so by the analogy
you proposed I believe this JavaScript workaround is entirely legal.

~~~
tomkarlo
I'm not sure that would apply here: in that case, you're talking about the
right to make a backup copy of an item you've properly licensed, and then
retain it only to use under the same terms as that original license.

In this case, you're taking content that you haven't paid for, and violating
the terms it's distributed under by disabling some portions so you can consume
it without paying.

I'd argue that's closer to disabling macrovision on a VHS tape so you can make
a backup copy of a rental tape to keep for yourself, and I'm pretty sure
that's verboten.

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MatthewPhillips
Can't wait for all the browser extensions to be released. Install this in
Chrome once and forget about it.

~~~
mrduncan
Even easier, just create a bookmark to which points to:

javascript:$('overlay').hide();$('gatewayCreative').hide();$(document.body).setStyle({overflow:'scroll'});

Ironically, I couldn't test it since the paywall never came up now matter how
many articles I opened up.

~~~
MatthewPhillips
I want a Chrome extension that does it in the background so I don't have to
use a bookmarklet every time.

~~~
tghw
If you just save this to a .user.js file, add the user script headers, and
open that file in Chrome, it'll install it as an extension.

Edit: removed broken script.

~~~
mathias
That won’t work in all browsers. User scripts are executed in their own
context and don’t know of plugins and libraries that are available on the
page.

The good news is, you don’t need Prototype at all. I made this userscript this
morning: <https://gist.github.com/880967> Just click one of the “raw” links to
install.

~~~
tghw
You're right, mine won't work. Taken down.

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RiderOfGiraffes
Lengthy discussion of the same story from 21 hours ago:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2352023>

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arepb
I'd rather have paywalls than advertising. Still bummed out that TipJoy (YC08)
never made it.

~~~
MichaelGG
From the description I've read, even after you pay, you're still shown ads.

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pyre
When you pay for the physical newspaper you still have ads too. I'm not
surprised that they are translating this to online...

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Que
Alternatively, if you just want the content.. Right Click -> View Source

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p0ppe
Another way to defeat the paywall is to use a link on Twitter.
<https://twitter.com/#!/freeNYTimes> uses the NY Times API to share all
stories that the paper publishes online.

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gluejar
Isn't it better to put up some CSS asking for money than to impose all sorts
of DRM to annoy your paying customers? I for one, am more willing to (continue
to) pay for a NYT subscription knowing that the payfence is very lightweight.

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marcamillion
How is this used ? Do I just copy this into the address bar ?

~~~
kaichanvong
Nope you need to use console. Switch on dev tool bar on Safari or CTRL + Shift
+ C in Chrome and then console, paste, run.

~~~
rsoto
You don't need the console.

~~~
kaichanvong
Sorry - you don't need the console to inject JavaScript into the page. But for
the code linked at the top of the page, you will.

See the code above that begins with "javascript:" and you can use that to
inject the javascript through the URL bar!

