

NY Times shuts down a paywall bypass in just 68 minutes - choogi
http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/03/28/ny-times-shuts-down-a-paywall-bypass-in-just-68-minutes/

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jedsmith
For next headline, choose one:

 _Arms race escalates, NYT paywall defeated again in 4.3 hours_

 _DMCA takedown issued to $host over paywall hack in 12 hours_

 _Paywall hacker fights back, issues counter-notice and restores access in 10
days_

 _The NYT Paywall and Color: Unexpected connection revealed in weekend hack_

 _Introducing paywal.ly (YC S'11), developed in just 14 days_

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corin_
I read the title expecting to read about how their technical team modified the
system to stop a bypass from working, not that they contacted someone to get
him to stop offering a bypass service.

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noaharc
Yeah, that's not how the NYT rolls. We got around the paywall pretty easily --
getting around the legal wall though... It's a shame, because we really want
to work with partners to help them build their businesses. In due time! :-)

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citricsquid
I considered a similar idea like this back when the paywalls were first
introduced across some of the larger news sites. Simply register 1 account and
then funnel all requests through it for free. It did however conflict with my
own idea of what should and shouldn't be done, so I never made it.

~~~
mikeklaas
It might also conflict with the reality that it would be detected trivially
and shut down immediately.

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Andrenid
A single account the does daily archives of any new articles, and mirrors them
for people, would not be easily detected. It would just look like someone
browsing all the new articles each day. Spread it across 2 accounts, and have
each one just browse half the new articles each.

Not that i'd endorse this sort of idea, hence i'm not making it, just
speculating.

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ruycer
I think that in this prank there is hidden an interesting experiment, which
shows alternative ways to create micropayments. I wonder if you can build a
bookmarklet was built it would become less cumbersome to use.

~~~
kuahyeow
I'm curious too about how the 600 odd people were willing to use
micropayments. Turns out it was a stunt/demo for <https://www.minno.co/>

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gallerytungsten
Now if the Times had some smart person on their staff, they'd call off the
hounds and instead sell him content on a wholesale basis. Then let everybody
sell NYT stories, just as anyone who wants to can sell for Amazon.

~~~
moe
_Then let everybody sell NYT stories, just as anyone who wants to can sell for
Amazon._

Except the infrastructure for that would probably take 40MM or so to build...

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jarin
If you are serious about wanting to bypass the paywall, you should probably
wait until their entire server admin force isn't hovering over the console and
server logs monitoring the launch. Just saying.

