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Thanks, I understand better now. If Admiral enables paywalls, then I kind of agree with Admiral. If companies want to put paywalls, circumventing them is kind

Thanks, I understand better now. If Admiral enables paywalls, then I kind of agree with Admiral. If companies want to put paywalls, circumventing them is kind of like jumping the gate to see a concert for free. I always hit the back button, but publishers should be free to put up paywalls (no idea why they don't do it server-side, but that's another story). So, I guess the article or at least the title are a little sensationalistic?

callalex 9y ago
If your paywall can be circumvented by not making a single http request then the problem lies in bad software engineering, not the law. What happens if I'm on a slow connection and that request fails? Do they get to send the FBI after me since I'm suddenly a criminal?
Nursie 9y ago
Here's the thing - if blocking the loading of your protection script from a third-party server is all it takes to bypass your paywall, haven't you really, really screwed up? Surely it should be the other way around - the paywall doesn't let you through unless the code is accessible and gets run? I'm not going to try and claim people wouldn't be so stupid as to try to implement it this way...
- 15155 9y ago
  > I'm not going to try and claim people wouldn't be so stupid as to try to implement it this way. They aren't stupid: they are incredibly intelligent. It was implemented this way to weaponize the DMCA, plain and simple.
  - walterstucco 9y ago
    Just move the list on a server in Iceland Game-set-match
  - Nursie 9y ago
    If it's actually to protect anything, it's dumb, as it's defeated by whitelists, filters or even poor connections...
mod 9y ago
> If Admiral enables paywalls, then I kind of agree with Admiral. I do and I don't. I think paywalls should be allowed to happen, but I don't think EasyList is circumventing paywalls. The companies that use EasyList might use it to circumvent a paywall, but what they do with a list of domains is up to them. If I grabbed the EasyList repo, there's no way I could use it to circumvent a paywall. Nothing in that repo carries that functionality. It's not a matter of semantics or mincing words, either.
nkrisc 9y ago
They shouldn't send the content before they check if the user has paid to view it. Otherwise if they send the content to anyone who requests they can't complain when I choose what does and doesn't run on my computer.

callalex 9y ago

If your paywall can be circumvented by not making a single http request then the problem lies in bad software engineering, not the law. What happens if I'm on a slow connection and that request fails? Do they get to send the FBI after me since I'm suddenly a criminal?

Nursie 9y ago

Here's the thing - if blocking the loading of your protection script from a third-party server is all it takes to bypass your paywall, haven't you really, really screwed up? Surely it should be the other way around - the paywall doesn't let you through unless the code is accessible and gets run? I'm not going to try and claim people wouldn't be so stupid as to try to implement it this way...

15155 9y ago
> I'm not going to try and claim people wouldn't be so stupid as to try to implement it this way. They aren't stupid: they are incredibly intelligent. It was implemented this way to weaponize the DMCA, plain and simple.
- walterstucco 9y ago
  Just move the list on a server in Iceland Game-set-match
- Nursie 9y ago
  If it's actually to protect anything, it's dumb, as it's defeated by whitelists, filters or even poor connections...

mod 9y ago

> If Admiral enables paywalls, then I kind of agree with Admiral. I do and I don't. I think paywalls should be allowed to happen, but I don't think EasyList is circumventing paywalls. The companies that use EasyList might use it to circumvent a paywall, but what they do with a list of domains is up to them. If I grabbed the EasyList repo, there's no way I could use it to circumvent a paywall. Nothing in that repo carries that functionality. It's not a matter of semantics or mincing words, either.

nkrisc 9y ago

They shouldn't send the content before they check if the user has paid to view it. Otherwise if they send the content to anyone who requests they can't complain when I choose what does and doesn't run on my computer.