[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Looking for sites blocked by paywalls or remove-ad-blockers

Mon Nov 13 20:16:15 PST 2023

 Drew -- 
>If I happen to come upon an article that I want to read on a protected  paywall website I will typically go around it. I just >wouldn't do it everyday.

Most sites with paywalls do offer two to five "free trial" articles before invoking their paywalls.
Carl -- 
>It is possible for a website to sell individual articles.  The credit card processing fees are not so great as to prevent this.

You'd be surprised how high the processing fees at the site owner's end can get in real life. Not an option for smaller sites. Personally, I don't want a whole string of micro-charges showing up on my bank or credit card statements, on paper or online or in a banking app. Too much of an accounting headache. 
An unauthorized micro-charge can be the first indicator of fraud or identity theft. I don't want these potential red flags to propagate due to web site micro-fees. I feel very differently about per-episode charges in my Cable Service or streaming device billing, since these are aggregated monthly under an umbrella statement online or in the main service's app. The same applies to electronic payment of tolls through EZDrive. Micro-charges are itemized within an aggregated monthly billing statement. Including the aggravating "paper bill" fee. 
Subscriptions are singular monthly fees, which are much easier to account for in a running ledger. I have paid services, including charging my plug-in hybrid car, which have micro-charges per use, and it's a real pain dealing with all the ledger clutter these frequent, small charges can generate in a month. 

>Apple News offers a subscription service for $0.99 per month that claims to give you access to 300 different publications. 

So do a lot of RSS feeds and News Aggregator apps or services. Pricing (or free access) varies. RSS services have been endangered for decades due to paywalls and increasing numbers of per-use micro-fees and restrictions, similar to the publisher fees and restrictions for e-books.  
-- Bob Primak 

    On Monday, November 13, 2023 at 08:39:54 PM EST, Drew King (dking65--- via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us> wrote:  

 For me using a particular ad blocking feature such as getting rid of tracking devices on websites is a good thing and should be okay it's just that they're normally mixed in with ad blocking technology.

Companies like YouTube charge I think 12 or $13 per month to not see advertisements and that's a lot of money for somebody who watches one video a month or every few months. If I watched videos every day I could understand paying something less than $13 but being an occasional user I'm not impacting their bottom line at all by blocking advertising in the one video I watch every few months.

Block in moderation.

Most of my ad blocking or my initial ad blocking is at the network level by having my VPN block ads. An extra  feature my VPN has. 

Some websites are out of control and have excessive advertising that hinders your ability to enjoy the website. 

If I were a regular reader of a particular newspaper I would subscribe as a regular customer as I do for the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

If I happen to come upon an article that I want to read on a protected  paywall website I will typically go around it. I just wouldn't do it everyday. 

It would be expensive if you subscribed to a half a dozen newspapers just to read an article every now and then on their website. 

The iPhone is the most popular smartphone in the United States and it does not have the capability to block advertising the way a desktop operating system can or an Android phone can. The iPhone and the iPad are two platforms that are highly susceptible to tracking and vicious advertising. 

Neither Apple or Google allows apps in their app stores that do aggressive ad blocking. My VPN company provides an Android app that does ad blocking directly from their website bypassing the Google Play app store. 

One of the reasons I dislike the idea of owning Apple products is my choice to block or not block advertising is often taken away. You do not have the freedom to choose like you do on the Android platform. 

-- 
Drew King

On November 13, 2023 5:32:47 PM EST, Dick Miller via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us> wrote:
 Whoops! Mitch beat me to it. (Well done, Mitch!) Let libraries go modern!

  Cheers from
 --Dick Miller, Partner, MMS <TheMillers at millermicro.com>

  On 11/13/23 16:32, Mitchell I. Wolfe via LCTG wrote:

Oftentimes the textual content actually has been downloaded into the browser but Javascript is blocking display.

You can use a browser plug-in extension or similar tool as Steve suggested to just show the text without images and other clutter. Before complex multi-media content, people used to use the legacy Lynx text web browser which probably still works.

Alternatively I've used the Textise Bookmarklet tool. You add the special bookmark to your browser by following the instructions. A page is redisplayed as text when you click on the bookmark.

Newspapers, magazine, and other periodicals are often available at your local library both as hardcopy or online to patrons. The Lexington Cary Library gets a good deal on online subscriptions because they often pay on a town population basis but the library is the second busiest in the state.

Support your local library...

-- Mitch

On 2023-11-13 15:36, Steve Isenberg via LCTG wrote:

   The ad-blocker works to detect and block advertisements on the pages you are viewing.  It does not check the content for anything, doesn't block any malware or viruses (that's the job of antivirus software).   Site owners don't like ad-blockers because the site owners earn money when advertisements are displayed on the page (and especially when/if you click on the advertisement) and by blocking advertisements on a page they are not getting any of this potential money.   My issue/concern/complaint is not that I want to prevent the site from displaying advertisements, as really I do try to disable all advertisement-preventing plugins (that is, ad-blockers) to let the site display advertisements.  But while I think I've disabled all of them, the site complains that I still have some open and active.   Now if the site were to be specific and tell me that I still have the XYZ ad-blocking software active, I could then get this XYZ turned off.   But it's a guessing game as the site is saying to me "you haven't turned them all off.  I know this in ways I'm not going to tell you and I may even know which one(s) you haven't turned off, but it is up to you to figure out which one(s) and turn it or them off."   Tip: I have had some measure of success seeing content using the Reader mode on my iPhone and the Tranquility! extension on my MacOS systems Firefox browser.   Regards, -steve  
  On Mon, Nov 13, 2023 at 3:10 PM Richard Wagner via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us> wrote: 

Oops! I meant the malware, viruses, etc. in the content I am trying to access, not necessarily that exists in an ad that may be present. Sorry!

Dick
 On 11/13/2023 2:53 PM, Richard Wagner via LCTG wrote: 

To me, circumventing ads and gaining access to web content that the web site spent resources to establish are two different "beasts". I want access to the web content, so paying for it has an ethical and, likely, a copyright aspect to it. I DID NOT request a popup ad that requires that I must disable my ad-blocker in order to gain access to the information I am seeking. My assumption has been that the ad-blocker is present to eliminate malware, viruses, etc. that may exist in the ad (am I incorrect in this assumption?). Thus, I would like to learn how to circumvent such ad-blocker turnoff requests without turning my ad-blocker off! Incidentally, I have no (or maybe a little) problem with ads that accompany the content I am wishing to peruse. I have lived with this annoyance my whole life: radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, web-site content, etc.

Dick
 On 11/13/2023 2:23 PM, David Lees via LCTG wrote: 
  George, Perhaps micropayments and whatever the software infrastructure for them would be a good topic for an LCTG talk?  Maybe you have already had one of those in the past, but hopefully, it is an area that is changing, because I know they (the payment processing costs) used to be expensive.  But, agreed it would be great if you could pay a small amount by the article rather than a subscription.  I know for technical articles, the cost per article is rather high for an individual, but given the potential volume for news and mass distribution material, why not have 25 or 50 cents per article?   David Lees  
  On Mon, Nov 13, 2023 at 2:10 PM George Gamota <ggamota at stma-llc.com> wrote: 

I understand the ethics if you access a website a lot bypassing paying, but what I find an issue, is when you have one article that might be of interest, say published by Kansas City Tribune. You don't want to pay and read  articles published by them daily. So maybe there could a payment say of $.50 to read that one article.

Just a thought

George

From: LCTG <lctg-bounces+ggamota=stma-llc.com at lists.toku.us> On Behalf Of carllazarus--- via LCTG
 Sent: Monday, November 13, 2023 1:17 PM
 To: 'David Lees' <joeoptics at gmail.com>; 'Robert Primak' <bobprimak at yahoo.com>
 Cc: 'Lex Computer Group' <lctg at lists.toku.us>; 'Steve Isenberg' <smisenberg at gmail.com>
 Subject: Re: [Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Looking for sites blocked by paywalls or remove-ad-blockers

Exactly my thought.  We may be talking about large entities such as the NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, etc. but if we want them to continue to exist they need to be able to pay their expenses and make some money.

-- Carl

From: LCTG <lctg-bounces+carllazarus=comcast.net at lists.toku.us> On Behalf Of David Lees via LCTG
 Sent: Monday, November 13, 2023 1:12 PM
 To: Robert Primak <bobprimak at yahoo.com>
 Cc: Lex Computer Group <lctg at lists.toku.us>; Steve Isenberg <smisenberg at gmail.com>
 Subject: Re: [Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Looking for sites blocked by paywalls or remove-ad-blockers

You could also discuss the ethical issues of not paying for things that people trying to make a living are doing?

David Lees 
 From Pixel 6 Pro

On Mon, Nov 13, 2023, 1:00 PM Robert Primak via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us> wrote:

You are NOT committing any crime by using most evasion techniques available to the general public (not tech-savvy hackers).

I don't know what Steve has or had in mind, but no one can take any legal actions against anyone for publicly discussing these tactics. 

Please refer to You Tube's Terms of Use and Zoom's code of user conduct if in any further doubt. Other sites also have terms of use. 

-- Bob Primak

On Monday, November 13, 2023 at 12:52:44 PM EST, Steve Isenberg via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us> wrote: 

Gentlepeople,

After much consideration, discussing with several people, and consulting with ChatGPT, I've decided not to demonstrate this.  We can discuss the situation on Wednesday's Potpourri but I no longer feel comfortable giving a demonstration for legal reasons.  My apologies.

I'm open to comments.

-steve

Here's what I've learned from ChatGPT:

Steve asks ChatGPT:

suppose I have found a way to get around a paywall without paying or subscribing, or to get around a site's requirement to disable all ad blockers without disabling ad blockers, and I can do this only on my computer and without accessing or tampering with the website. Am I committing a crime or doing something that would subject me to a lawsuit or other legal action by the website owner?

ChatGPT responds (edited):

Circumventing paywalls or other access restrictions without authorization may be a violation of the website's terms of service, which could potentially lead to legal consequences. Additionally, in some jurisdictions, such actions could be considered unauthorized access, hacking, or a violation of computer security laws.
 If you find a way to bypass paywalls and other measures that protect the website content without permission, it may be seen as a violation of the website's rights and could result in legal action.

 I asked Aria the same question and it responds (edited):

It's important to note that bypassing paywalls or circumventing a website's requirements without permission may be considered unethical or even illegal in some jurisdictions. Here are a few points to consider:
 Websites have the right to protect their content and enforce their terms of service.
 Unauthorized access to paid content or finding ways to bypass paywalls may violate copyright laws or terms of service agreements.
 Engaging in such activities could potentially subject you to legal action by the website owner, such as a lawsuit or other legal consequences.

Harry asked a similar question addressing only circumventing paywalls, and got the response (edited):

Bypassing a paywall of a website without a subscription could potentially be considered a violation of the website's terms of service or terms of use. It may also infringe upon copyright laws or other applicable laws, depending on the jurisdiction. Engaging in such activities could potentially have legal consequences, including the possibility of facing legal action from the website owner. It is always advisable to respect the terms and conditions set by website owners and to seek proper legal means to access content.

On Mon, Nov 13, 2023 at 12:01 PM Robert Primak <bobprimak at yahoo.com> wrote:

The Boston Globe and the New York Times hide a lot of their content.

Then there's the somewhat more problematic case of You Tube.

-- Bob Primak

On Monday, November 13, 2023 at 08:25:34 AM EST, Steve Isenberg via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us> wrote: 

Gentlepeople,

This Wednesday as part of the presentation I plan to show how to proceed to web sites that prevent you from accessing their content unless you (a) remove all of your ad-blockers, or (b) subscribe or pay to see the content (paywalls).

Could you send me (and not the list) the URL of sites you have run into that block your access, and I'll add them to the list I'll use as demonstrations.

Thanks,

-steve

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