11 ms·

Tell HN: Bypass Paywalls repository is gone

343 points by sogen 2y ago

Repository seems to be gone: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean/ https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean... Visiting the user profile says it has been blocked: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/ https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/

doode 2y ago
The archive linked in the developer's Twitter profile (https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B) lists a new GitHub repo: https://github.com/bpc-clone/bpc_updates/ https://github.com/bpc-clone/bpc_updates/ Download latest release from here: https://github.com/bpc-clone/bpc_updates/releases/tag/latest https://github.com/bpc-clone/bpc_updates/releases/tag/latest It should auto-update (as long as the new GitHub repo isn't taken down...)
Cabluckie 2y ago
[dead]
sogen 2y ago
Newest repo location https://github.com/bpc-clone/bpc_updates/releases https://github.com/bpc-clone/bpc_updates/releases
KomoD 2y ago
Weird, someone said something about that earlier today but then it got restored and now it's gone again?
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
xnx 2y ago
What's the relation between the Gitlab repository and the Github one? https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome
- koito17 2y ago
  The Gitlab one is actually maintained. They haven't been using GitHub for a while now. (Plenty of updates to the extension have occurred within the past 6 months, the date of the last commit on GitHub)
- coretx 2y ago
  The gitlab one is "clean". But i don't remember the exact details regarding what it means. Just not to use the "dirty" one.
  - leoh 2y ago
    The clean one is not “clean” in that it still does all kinds of tracking
    - michael9423 2y ago
      What do you mean with this?
      - soap- 2y ago
        https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome/blob/c66fb6d18ab35488ee0f7c14011b9eb1d9b764f6/src/js/background.js#L552 https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome/blob/c6...
        cormorant 2y ago
        If you look at the source code in any of the mirrors people have linked, you'll find that the "clean" one that was taken down today does not have Google Analytics.
        leoh 2y ago
        That’s not the issue. It’s that it tracks in other ways.
        2y ago
vertis 2y ago
It's hard to know how up to date this is but: https://github.com/eugenesvk/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean https://github.com/eugenesvk/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean (It does seem to be more up-to-date than other mirrors I've found) Edit: It's about 300 commits old. https://web.archive.org/web/20240410093750/https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean https://web.archive.org/web/20240410093750/https://gitlab.co...
- ZunarJ5 2y ago
  These appears to be the most recent forks for the archivers. ;) https://gitlab.com/Fernos/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean https://gitlab.com/Fernos/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean latest: https://gitlab.com/expat.russia/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean https://gitlab.com/expat.russia/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clea... https://gitlab.com/cjkpfit/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean https://gitlab.com/cjkpfit/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean
  - pogue 2y ago
    It's good that there are forks, but I was under the impression that the head person running the project was the one keeping all the paywall bypasses up to date. Even if these forks work, if no one is actively keeping track of each site that is being bypassed as it breaks or changes, they won't be working for long.
    - ZunarJ5 2y ago
      I am looking into uploading it on archive.org as well. Fingers crossed someone takes the torch. Bless open source. Looks like the official store one was last updated on March 1, so the forked links from mid March are only slightly ahead. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypass-paywalls-for-firefox/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypass-paywal... Hopefully the original user migrates to a new platform, but if this store version gets removed I think we can all assume they got struck with a lawsuit threat. edit - done: https://archive.org/details/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean-master3 https://archive.org/details/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean-ma...
ChrisArchitect 2y ago
[flagged]
ktosobcy 2y ago
So... any mirror out there?
idle_zealot 2y ago
Do bypasses like this, which I assume just do things like deleting "uncloseable" client-side modals and spoofing UA/referrer headers, count as copy-protection circumvention technology under the DMCA?
- Yeul 2y ago
  The question is: do you actually want to spend time dealing with that or just nuke anything that gives you a legal headache? When big corpos tell you to jump you jump.
- Karellen 2y ago
  Does the thing being bypassed prevent you from saving the page, or from making in any other way a copy of any content you've already fetched? If not, how could it be classed as copy-protection? Edit: One other thing: if spoofing UA headers was a problem, all the browsers in the world would fall foul of it - because non-Mozilla browsers all say that they're Mozilla, and Opera said it was IE, and Chrome said it was Safari, and now a bunch of browsers say they're Chrome - at the same time as saying they're Mozilla. Except it's more complicated than that.
  - clemiclemen 2y ago
    Those looking into the history or the user agent, and why it happens to advertise itself as Firefox, Safari and Chrome ate the same time, can look into this article: https://webaim.org/blog/user-agent-string-history/comment-page-2/ https://webaim.org/blog/user-agent-string-history/comment-pa...
  - idle_zealot 2y ago
    I guess it's less copy-protection and more access-control.
  - Hello71 2y ago
    this is basically the "computer scientist" view of the world in https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23 https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23, especially the Monolith bit. spoofing UA could be legal in general or when done for interoperability but illegal when done with intent to bypass access control.
zerof1l 2y ago
Apparently this page works! You can download latest version from here: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bpc-uploads/ https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bpc-uploads/ EDIT: magnet link with all btc-uploads content magnet:?xt=urn:btih:7839e845f7965bed1035dc5d4635811d1ede73d2&dn=magnolia1234-bypass-paywalls-uploads-master
- cormorant 2y ago
  also: https://archive.org/details/bypass_paywalls_clean-3.6.3.0 https://archive.org/details/bypass_paywalls_clean-3.6.3.0
- spxneo 2y ago
  gitlab link does not work
- donutpepperoni 2y ago
  Seeding for Streishand ™
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
cormorant 2y ago
Archived copy that's newer than others mentioned: https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/origin/directory/?origin_url=https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean.git https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/origin/directory... Tip revision: 1c8f71997c1fb3b3f60957514ec2bce1591a1bfc authored by magnolia1234 on 01 April 2024, 07:35:12 UTC also the Firefox-specific repo: https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/origin/directory/?origin_url=https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean.git https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/origin/directory... also the bpc-uploads (XPI, CRX): https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/origin/directory/?origin_url=https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bpc-uploads.git https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/origin/directory...
- ZunarJ5 2y ago
  I updated the archive.org copy with this one. Oh man, what a great site.
  - cormorant 2y ago
    I think you need the "chrome" repository too.
    - ZunarJ5 2y ago
      I'll put all 3 you linked up.
- ktosobcy 2y ago
  Is it possible to clone it instead of only downloading current version or viewing history?
ta8645 2y ago
Edit: * Has been taken offline now. * They didn't purge the xpi download repository, so you can still download the latest XPI package signed by Mozilla: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bpc-uploads/-/raw/master/bypass_paywalls_clean-latest.xpi https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bpc-uploads/-/raw/master/byp... There are other xpi packages available in the same repo: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bpc-uploads/ https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bpc-uploads/
- garciansmith 2y ago
  I get 404s now following those links.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - spxneo 2y ago
    how powerful do you have to be in the US to be able to take down mirrors within an hour? this is disturbing to see
    - CatWChainsaw 2y ago
      Specifically for a tool for bypassing paywalls. I'd expect this behavior if we were talking about CSAM or a stream of terrorists beheading people.
    - KomoD 2y ago
      You just need a lot of money and some lawyers, everyone just folds as soon as lawyers and legal threats get involved.
NelsonMinar 2y ago
This extension works remarkably well. But it requires frequent updates to stay working as sites change. I sure hope there's some statement on what's up soon.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 2y ago
  I've ran into this issue as well. Is there an alternate "store" for open source chrome extensions? Something akin to F-droid that keeps them up to date?
  - sunaookami 2y ago
    You can only install from the Chrome Web Store. All other methods are annoying and you have to manually whitelist extension ids. I don't understand why the Chrome Web Store does not fall under the Digital Markets Act in the EU. Google is clearly a Gatekeeper here.
ta8645 2y ago
Thanks to the Streisand Effect, I've installed this. Seems to work pretty well on the few sites I've tried. Hopefully the maintainer can find a new home and let people know on Twitter. https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B
- nottorp 2y ago
  Streisand Effect indeed... I wasn't aware this existed but now I've saved a copy.
- tedivm 2y ago
  Wow, Gitlab has gotten ridiculous. They're making me sign up for an account, verify email, go through two captchas, and fill out a survey before they'll let me view the repository. . . . and now that I've done all that the repository is 404ing.
  - xnx 2y ago
    Phone number verification also fails for Google Voice.
    - djbusby 2y ago
      Loads of services have that issue, not just GitLab. Some are even blocking Twilio numbers.
      - simfree 2y ago
        Twilio is registered on the PSTN as an IPES, if your making the effort to block non-wireless OCNs, then your gonna block Twilio.
        efilife 2y ago
        You are* https://youryoure.com/ https://youryoure.com/
pswinslow 2y ago
I have a six day old copy of the repository at 'https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cS0uXgXdBjkI1ExmUr4ma23FGCwNGf_j/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cS0uXgXdBjkI1ExmUr4ma23FGCw...' and 'https://ibiza.seedhost.eu/smugchicken/filebrowser/api/public/dl/EkNGLyBs/git/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean.tar.zst https://ibiza.seedhost.eu/smugchicken/filebrowser/api/public...'. git log: commit 1ec176a328c072114148b9359de4927ca4a1a095 (HEAD -> master) Author: magnolia1234 <7676006-magnolia1234@users.noreply.gitlab.com> Date: Sat Apr 6 07:23:50 2024 +0200 Add Nordwest Zeitung Fix Capital.fr (videos)
wkat4242 2y ago
There's also a version still in the Firefox catalog (the official one has been banned from there too): --link removed, it was a fake, the one I referred to is gone too :( -- This is a help in particular for mobile firefox because they refuse to let us sideload addons.
- lemoncookiechip 2y ago
  Pretty sure that's the version that kept calling Google Analytics, and why we got a clean fork "Bypass Paywalls Clean". EDIT: Actually, never mind, this isn't even that, this is a fake according to the reviews.
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    Oh yes the one I mean is Bypass Paywalls Clean (D). But this also seems to have been kicked out of the Mozilla store. It was just a resubmit by someone else after the original got kicked out when a French newspaper complained. We really need sideloading capability in mobile firefox :(
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - Yeul 2y ago
      You can sideload in Firefox Android beta branch. Settings> about Firefox> tap on the fox logo a few times> debug menu enabled> now you see "install ad on from file" under advanced in the settings menu.
      - wkat4242 2y ago
        Wow they finally added this?? Wow. I will try that thanks!
- fwn 2y ago
  In Firefox for Android Nightly, you can (since recently) sideload extensions via the hidden debug menu (tap the Firefox logo in the About section a dozen times). This will add an "Install extension from file" option to the main settings menu. I don't know whether this also works in the standard version of Firefox for Android. It is good they reenabled this feature. Since it is/was very short-sighted of Mozilla to make their centralized addon store the single gatekeeper for extension access on user devices. As if they never thought about power dynamics in software.
CM30 2y ago
Seems like Gitlab seems to be even more ridiculous with their responses to large businesses and potentially dubious copyright claims than GitHub is. It's not the only time this month I've seen them take down repositories related to projects that some large company wanted removed despite it not necessarily being illegal in any way.
- wkat4242 2y ago
  Yeah this is not a DMCA thing, there is nothing copyrighted in the code. The core problem is the newspapers wanting their cake and eat it. They want those sweet google hits but they don't want to give their articles to readers without payment. So there's always a way around it if you can manage to fake a google spider. For me the current model is so broken. I end up on lots of different newspaper sites. But no, I'm not going to sign up for a subscription to the washington post or whatever to view 1 or 2 articles per month. That's just ridiculous, I don't even live in America. I subscribe to the local paper because it has content I read every day. If I'd subscribe for every article I get referred to by google or here on HN I would spend hundreds in monthly subscriptions :P It's just not a reasonable ask.
  - CM30 2y ago
    Yeah that's the thing isn't it? When people use a search engine, they want to be able to click through to the result and read it, not have to subscribe to some paid service to do so. If your business model doesn't let you offer that, then the answer is to accept you're not gonna be able to rank in search engines. That's it. Maybe a search engine for paid content could exist as its own thing, but that would be because people using it would expect they'd have to pay for what they want to read there. The attempts to get both Google hits and paywall content feel like some author trying to make everyone pay them money to borrow their book from a library; completely counter to the point of the institution to begin with.
  - ktosobcy 2y ago
    Yeah... some services offer a couple of articles per month and that would be nice though... there is again a way to circumvent it. I'd sign up for a free account with like 1-3 articles views per month because literally I don't read more in majority of the sites (apart from links on HN or reddit)... I do pay sub for the sites I visit often (at least 1-3 times a week)...
anthk 2y ago
Use DIllo, Lynx or Links on the URL's. If that fails, head to gemini://gemi.dev, the section News Waffle, and paste your own link. Use Lagrange, Gplaces or whatever Gemini client you like.
- djbusby 2y ago
  Does Gemini have any news about being vegan?
  - anthk 2y ago
    The Gemini 'News Waffle' service it's just an HTML decrapifier, you can put almost any web source as the input. Copy and paste the URL from a browser and that's it.
latchkey 2y ago
Previously (yesterday): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40007670 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40007670
aksophist 2y ago
Now I wish I had bookmarked the distributed (peer to peer?) github replacement I’ve seen trend on HN a couple of times. It seems like a good place to host something like this. Anyone remember which tool I’m talking about?
- alwayslikethis 2y ago
  https://radicle.xyz/ https://radicle.xyz/ This?
- Jhsto 2y ago
  https://radicle.xyz/ https://radicle.xyz/ most likely.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
cranberryturkey 2y ago
checkout https://brisk.news https://brisk.news
bubblethink 2y ago
Why was this hosted on gitlab.com ? If you're not on github, the discoverablity is pretty low. You are not self hosting. There is no upside for a project like this to be on gitlab.com. If you're already taking the hit of not being mainstream, why not self host in a sane country ?
- neilv 2y ago
  I don't know about this project, but some projects fled GitHub on principle, when they sold out to MS. If this project were, say, an adtech company, or someone publishing open source solely for resume-boosting reasons, then principles might not matter.
  - vivzkestrel 2y ago
    i dont understand this principle at all, mind explaining what is the problem with MS owning github?
    - Maledictus 2y ago
      https://jacquesmattheij.com/what-is-wrong-with-microsoft-buying-github/ https://jacquesmattheij.com/what-is-wrong-with-microsoft-buy...
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
- bsder 2y ago
  1) There are lots of reasons to avoid Github and they are all spelled Microsoft. 2) Putting something on Gitlab means that there is one level of activation energy between idiots trying to pad out some corporate "social goodwill" number by "fixing" things on your project. If I ever had to open-source anything, I would host it somewhere else and mirror a read-only repo to github.
  - 2y ago
penguin_booze 2y ago
I'm grateful for the extension. I used to see a steady stream of updates. I hope the author find another host to host the repository.
IncreasePosts 2y ago
The easiest way to bypass paywalls is to just disable JavaScript for the site. It works pretty much everywhere I've tried it except for the WSJ, which I suspect this extension doesn't work for either. Edit: or, maybe it does. I see WSJ.com in the config, with a referrer as drugereport and user agent as Google not to get around it.
- terrycody 2y ago
  I remember there is a big media site, which even use Archive.is can't check its paywalled content part, do you know that site? Can this plugin work on it? I doubt.
- afp14 2y ago
  it works on WSJ, I use it for that site. for some bypasses, it doesn't "just load the page" but rather pops up a link to archive.ph or similar to pull the article, still convenient I also point out there is "bypass paywalls" and "bypass paywalls clean", kind of similar to the uBlock family with "uBlock origin" being the "good guy" edition
  - blamazon 2y ago
    Some WSJ articles work and some don't for me. I think the difference may be opinion pieces.
    - fwn 2y ago
      Not sure about WSJ, but in some cases the extension fetches the content from archive today and inserts it into the displayed website tab. If there is no mirror on archive today, the extension cannot insert it.
cmer 2y ago
I happen to have downloaded the master branch at 9am this morning. Here's a torrent: magnet:?xt=urn:btih:92042e65d1b38cd5d97c29baa4d0c9e2af46f355&dn=bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean-master.zip
rounakdatta 2y ago
Orthogonal question: Does bypassing of paywall somehow work for Substack? Can a solution like RealDebrid / SciHub, but for Substack exist?
1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20231223094834if_/https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean/-/archive/master/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean-master.tar.gz https://web.archive.org/web/20231223094834if_/https://gitlab...
NoelJacob 2y ago
I think a good idea would be forking Telegram's quick article view feature source code and developing on it.
EwanG 2y ago
The last couple of versions I tried to download gave TROJAN warnings from MS Defender. I had created an issue on the project notifying the developer, and I understood he was changing things to not give a "false positive". Perhaps GitLab didn't think they were false positives?
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
DizzyCsango 2y ago
Per magnolia's Twitter: magnolia1234_bpc @Magnolia1234B · 22m Update: tomorrow a new Firefox-release v3.6.4.0 (signed = security check) ! Manual update required with upload on X (new version will update automatically) For now no more public source code or request issues (use DM on X) https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B/status/1779050596181438791 https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B/status/1779050596181438791 WeTransfer already expired (should last 7 days), but new upload here:: https://t.co/8TADPNhiYW https://t.co/8TADPNhiYW
- account42 2y ago
  That's quite fishy.
DizzyCsango 2y ago
magnolia1234_bpc @Magnolia1234B · 22m Update: tomorrow a new Firefox-release v3.6.4.0 (signed = security check) ! Manual update required with upload on X (new version will update automatically) For now no more public source code or request issues (use DM on X) https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B/status/1779050596181438791 https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B/status/1779050596181438791 WeTransfer already expired (should last 7 days), but new upload here: https://t.co/8TADPNhiYW https://t.co/8TADPNhiYW

343 points by sogen 2y ago

doode 2y ago

The archive linked in the developer's Twitter profile (https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B) lists a new GitHub repo: https://github.com/bpc-clone/bpc_updates/ https://github.com/bpc-clone/bpc_updates/ Download latest release from here: https://github.com/bpc-clone/bpc_updates/releases/tag/latest https://github.com/bpc-clone/bpc_updates/releases/tag/latest It should auto-update (as long as the new GitHub repo isn't taken down...)

Cabluckie 2y ago

[dead]

sogen 2y ago

Newest repo location https://github.com/bpc-clone/bpc_updates/releases https://github.com/bpc-clone/bpc_updates/releases

KomoD 2y ago

Weird, someone said something about that earlier today but then it got restored and now it's gone again?

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

xnx 2y ago

What's the relation between the Gitlab repository and the Github one? https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome

koito17 2y ago
The Gitlab one is actually maintained. They haven't been using GitHub for a while now. (Plenty of updates to the extension have occurred within the past 6 months, the date of the last commit on GitHub)
coretx 2y ago
The gitlab one is "clean". But i don't remember the exact details regarding what it means. Just not to use the "dirty" one.
- leoh 2y ago
  The clean one is not “clean” in that it still does all kinds of tracking
  - michael9423 2y ago
    What do you mean with this?
    - soap- 2y ago
      https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome/blob/c66fb6d18ab35488ee0f7c14011b9eb1d9b764f6/src/js/background.js#L552 https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome/blob/c6...
      - cormorant 2y ago
        If you look at the source code in any of the mirrors people have linked, you'll find that the "clean" one that was taken down today does not have Google Analytics.
        leoh 2y ago
        That’s not the issue. It’s that it tracks in other ways.
      - 2y ago

vertis 2y ago

It's hard to know how up to date this is but: https://github.com/eugenesvk/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean https://github.com/eugenesvk/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean (It does seem to be more up-to-date than other mirrors I've found) Edit: It's about 300 commits old. https://web.archive.org/web/20240410093750/https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean https://web.archive.org/web/20240410093750/https://gitlab.co...

ZunarJ5 2y ago
These appears to be the most recent forks for the archivers. ;) https://gitlab.com/Fernos/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean https://gitlab.com/Fernos/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean latest: https://gitlab.com/expat.russia/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean https://gitlab.com/expat.russia/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clea... https://gitlab.com/cjkpfit/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean https://gitlab.com/cjkpfit/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean
- pogue 2y ago
  It's good that there are forks, but I was under the impression that the head person running the project was the one keeping all the paywall bypasses up to date. Even if these forks work, if no one is actively keeping track of each site that is being bypassed as it breaks or changes, they won't be working for long.
  - ZunarJ5 2y ago
    I am looking into uploading it on archive.org as well. Fingers crossed someone takes the torch. Bless open source. Looks like the official store one was last updated on March 1, so the forked links from mid March are only slightly ahead. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypass-paywalls-for-firefox/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypass-paywal... Hopefully the original user migrates to a new platform, but if this store version gets removed I think we can all assume they got struck with a lawsuit threat. edit - done: https://archive.org/details/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean-master3 https://archive.org/details/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean-ma...

ChrisArchitect 2y ago

[flagged]

ktosobcy 2y ago

So... any mirror out there?

idle_zealot 2y ago

Do bypasses like this, which I assume just do things like deleting "uncloseable" client-side modals and spoofing UA/referrer headers, count as copy-protection circumvention technology under the DMCA?

Yeul 2y ago
The question is: do you actually want to spend time dealing with that or just nuke anything that gives you a legal headache? When big corpos tell you to jump you jump.
Karellen 2y ago
Does the thing being bypassed prevent you from saving the page, or from making in any other way a copy of any content you've already fetched? If not, how could it be classed as copy-protection? Edit: One other thing: if spoofing UA headers was a problem, all the browsers in the world would fall foul of it - because non-Mozilla browsers all say that they're Mozilla, and Opera said it was IE, and Chrome said it was Safari, and now a bunch of browsers say they're Chrome - at the same time as saying they're Mozilla. Except it's more complicated than that.
- clemiclemen 2y ago
  Those looking into the history or the user agent, and why it happens to advertise itself as Firefox, Safari and Chrome ate the same time, can look into this article: https://webaim.org/blog/user-agent-string-history/comment-page-2/ https://webaim.org/blog/user-agent-string-history/comment-pa...
- idle_zealot 2y ago
  I guess it's less copy-protection and more access-control.
- Hello71 2y ago
  this is basically the "computer scientist" view of the world in https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23 https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23, especially the Monolith bit. spoofing UA could be legal in general or when done for interoperability but illegal when done with intent to bypass access control.

zerof1l 2y ago

Apparently this page works! You can download latest version from here: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bpc-uploads/ https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bpc-uploads/ EDIT: magnet link with all btc-uploads content magnet:?xt=urn:btih:7839e845f7965bed1035dc5d4635811d1ede73d2&dn=magnolia1234-bypass-paywalls-uploads-master

cormorant 2y ago
also: https://archive.org/details/bypass_paywalls_clean-3.6.3.0 https://archive.org/details/bypass_paywalls_clean-3.6.3.0
spxneo 2y ago
gitlab link does not work
donutpepperoni 2y ago
Seeding for Streishand ™

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

cormorant 2y ago

Archived copy that's newer than others mentioned: https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/origin/directory/?origin_url=https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean.git https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/origin/directory... Tip revision: 1c8f71997c1fb3b3f60957514ec2bce1591a1bfc authored by magnolia1234 on 01 April 2024, 07:35:12 UTC also the Firefox-specific repo: https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/origin/directory/?origin_url=https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean.git https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/origin/directory... also the bpc-uploads (XPI, CRX): https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/origin/directory/?origin_url=https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bpc-uploads.git https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/origin/directory...

ZunarJ5 2y ago
I updated the archive.org copy with this one. Oh man, what a great site.
- cormorant 2y ago
  I think you need the "chrome" repository too.
  - ZunarJ5 2y ago
    I'll put all 3 you linked up.
ktosobcy 2y ago
Is it possible to clone it instead of only downloading current version or viewing history?

ta8645 2y ago

Edit: * Has been taken offline now. * They didn't purge the xpi download repository, so you can still download the latest XPI package signed by Mozilla: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bpc-uploads/-/raw/master/bypass_paywalls_clean-latest.xpi https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bpc-uploads/-/raw/master/byp... There are other xpi packages available in the same repo: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bpc-uploads/ https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bpc-uploads/

garciansmith 2y ago
I get 404s now following those links.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- spxneo 2y ago
  how powerful do you have to be in the US to be able to take down mirrors within an hour? this is disturbing to see
  - CatWChainsaw 2y ago
    Specifically for a tool for bypassing paywalls. I'd expect this behavior if we were talking about CSAM or a stream of terrorists beheading people.
  - KomoD 2y ago
    You just need a lot of money and some lawyers, everyone just folds as soon as lawyers and legal threats get involved.

NelsonMinar 2y ago

This extension works remarkably well. But it requires frequent updates to stay working as sites change. I sure hope there's some statement on what's up soon.

rrrrrrrrrrrryan 2y ago
I've ran into this issue as well. Is there an alternate "store" for open source chrome extensions? Something akin to F-droid that keeps them up to date?
- sunaookami 2y ago
  You can only install from the Chrome Web Store. All other methods are annoying and you have to manually whitelist extension ids. I don't understand why the Chrome Web Store does not fall under the Digital Markets Act in the EU. Google is clearly a Gatekeeper here.

ta8645 2y ago

Thanks to the Streisand Effect, I've installed this. Seems to work pretty well on the few sites I've tried. Hopefully the maintainer can find a new home and let people know on Twitter. https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B

nottorp 2y ago
Streisand Effect indeed... I wasn't aware this existed but now I've saved a copy.
tedivm 2y ago
Wow, Gitlab has gotten ridiculous. They're making me sign up for an account, verify email, go through two captchas, and fill out a survey before they'll let me view the repository. . . . and now that I've done all that the repository is 404ing.
- xnx 2y ago
  Phone number verification also fails for Google Voice.
  - djbusby 2y ago
    Loads of services have that issue, not just GitLab. Some are even blocking Twilio numbers.
    - simfree 2y ago
      Twilio is registered on the PSTN as an IPES, if your making the effort to block non-wireless OCNs, then your gonna block Twilio.
      - efilife 2y ago
        You are* https://youryoure.com/ https://youryoure.com/

pswinslow 2y ago

I have a six day old copy of the repository at 'https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cS0uXgXdBjkI1ExmUr4ma23FGCwNGf_j/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cS0uXgXdBjkI1ExmUr4ma23FGCw...' and 'https://ibiza.seedhost.eu/smugchicken/filebrowser/api/public/dl/EkNGLyBs/git/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean.tar.zst https://ibiza.seedhost.eu/smugchicken/filebrowser/api/public...'. git log: commit 1ec176a328c072114148b9359de4927ca4a1a095 (HEAD -> master) Author: magnolia1234 <7676006-magnolia1234@users.noreply.gitlab.com> Date: Sat Apr 6 07:23:50 2024 +0200 Add Nordwest Zeitung Fix Capital.fr (videos)

wkat4242 2y ago

There's also a version still in the Firefox catalog (the official one has been banned from there too): --link removed, it was a fake, the one I referred to is gone too :( -- This is a help in particular for mobile firefox because they refuse to let us sideload addons.

lemoncookiechip 2y ago
Pretty sure that's the version that kept calling Google Analytics, and why we got a clean fork "Bypass Paywalls Clean". EDIT: Actually, never mind, this isn't even that, this is a fake according to the reviews.
- wkat4242 2y ago
  Oh yes the one I mean is Bypass Paywalls Clean (D). But this also seems to have been kicked out of the Mozilla store. It was just a resubmit by someone else after the original got kicked out when a French newspaper complained. We really need sideloading capability in mobile firefox :(
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - Yeul 2y ago
    You can sideload in Firefox Android beta branch. Settings> about Firefox> tap on the fox logo a few times> debug menu enabled> now you see "install ad on from file" under advanced in the settings menu.
    - wkat4242 2y ago
      Wow they finally added this?? Wow. I will try that thanks!
fwn 2y ago
In Firefox for Android Nightly, you can (since recently) sideload extensions via the hidden debug menu (tap the Firefox logo in the About section a dozen times). This will add an "Install extension from file" option to the main settings menu. I don't know whether this also works in the standard version of Firefox for Android. It is good they reenabled this feature. Since it is/was very short-sighted of Mozilla to make their centralized addon store the single gatekeeper for extension access on user devices. As if they never thought about power dynamics in software.

CM30 2y ago

Seems like Gitlab seems to be even more ridiculous with their responses to large businesses and potentially dubious copyright claims than GitHub is. It's not the only time this month I've seen them take down repositories related to projects that some large company wanted removed despite it not necessarily being illegal in any way.

wkat4242 2y ago
Yeah this is not a DMCA thing, there is nothing copyrighted in the code. The core problem is the newspapers wanting their cake and eat it. They want those sweet google hits but they don't want to give their articles to readers without payment. So there's always a way around it if you can manage to fake a google spider. For me the current model is so broken. I end up on lots of different newspaper sites. But no, I'm not going to sign up for a subscription to the washington post or whatever to view 1 or 2 articles per month. That's just ridiculous, I don't even live in America. I subscribe to the local paper because it has content I read every day. If I'd subscribe for every article I get referred to by google or here on HN I would spend hundreds in monthly subscriptions :P It's just not a reasonable ask.
- CM30 2y ago
  Yeah that's the thing isn't it? When people use a search engine, they want to be able to click through to the result and read it, not have to subscribe to some paid service to do so. If your business model doesn't let you offer that, then the answer is to accept you're not gonna be able to rank in search engines. That's it. Maybe a search engine for paid content could exist as its own thing, but that would be because people using it would expect they'd have to pay for what they want to read there. The attempts to get both Google hits and paywall content feel like some author trying to make everyone pay them money to borrow their book from a library; completely counter to the point of the institution to begin with.
- ktosobcy 2y ago
  Yeah... some services offer a couple of articles per month and that would be nice though... there is again a way to circumvent it. I'd sign up for a free account with like 1-3 articles views per month because literally I don't read more in majority of the sites (apart from links on HN or reddit)... I do pay sub for the sites I visit often (at least 1-3 times a week)...

anthk 2y ago

Use DIllo, Lynx or Links on the URL's. If that fails, head to gemini://gemi.dev, the section News Waffle, and paste your own link. Use Lagrange, Gplaces or whatever Gemini client you like.

djbusby 2y ago
Does Gemini have any news about being vegan?
- anthk 2y ago
  The Gemini 'News Waffle' service it's just an HTML decrapifier, you can put almost any web source as the input. Copy and paste the URL from a browser and that's it.

latchkey 2y ago

Previously (yesterday): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40007670 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40007670

aksophist 2y ago

Now I wish I had bookmarked the distributed (peer to peer?) github replacement I’ve seen trend on HN a couple of times. It seems like a good place to host something like this. Anyone remember which tool I’m talking about?

alwayslikethis 2y ago
https://radicle.xyz/ https://radicle.xyz/ This?
Jhsto 2y ago
https://radicle.xyz/ https://radicle.xyz/ most likely.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

cranberryturkey 2y ago

checkout https://brisk.news https://brisk.news

bubblethink 2y ago

Why was this hosted on gitlab.com ? If you're not on github, the discoverablity is pretty low. You are not self hosting. There is no upside for a project like this to be on gitlab.com. If you're already taking the hit of not being mainstream, why not self host in a sane country ?

neilv 2y ago
I don't know about this project, but some projects fled GitHub on principle, when they sold out to MS. If this project were, say, an adtech company, or someone publishing open source solely for resume-boosting reasons, then principles might not matter.
- vivzkestrel 2y ago
  i dont understand this principle at all, mind explaining what is the problem with MS owning github?
  - Maledictus 2y ago
    https://jacquesmattheij.com/what-is-wrong-with-microsoft-buying-github/ https://jacquesmattheij.com/what-is-wrong-with-microsoft-buy...
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
bsder 2y ago
1) There are lots of reasons to avoid Github and they are all spelled Microsoft. 2) Putting something on Gitlab means that there is one level of activation energy between idiots trying to pad out some corporate "social goodwill" number by "fixing" things on your project. If I ever had to open-source anything, I would host it somewhere else and mirror a read-only repo to github.
- 2y ago

penguin_booze 2y ago

I'm grateful for the extension. I used to see a steady stream of updates. I hope the author find another host to host the repository.

IncreasePosts 2y ago

The easiest way to bypass paywalls is to just disable JavaScript for the site. It works pretty much everywhere I've tried it except for the WSJ, which I suspect this extension doesn't work for either. Edit: or, maybe it does. I see WSJ.com in the config, with a referrer as drugereport and user agent as Google not to get around it.

terrycody 2y ago
I remember there is a big media site, which even use Archive.is can't check its paywalled content part, do you know that site? Can this plugin work on it? I doubt.
afp14 2y ago
it works on WSJ, I use it for that site. for some bypasses, it doesn't "just load the page" but rather pops up a link to archive.ph or similar to pull the article, still convenient I also point out there is "bypass paywalls" and "bypass paywalls clean", kind of similar to the uBlock family with "uBlock origin" being the "good guy" edition
- blamazon 2y ago
  Some WSJ articles work and some don't for me. I think the difference may be opinion pieces.
  - fwn 2y ago
    Not sure about WSJ, but in some cases the extension fetches the content from archive today and inserts it into the displayed website tab. If there is no mirror on archive today, the extension cannot insert it.

cmer 2y ago

I happen to have downloaded the master branch at 9am this morning. Here's a torrent: magnet:?xt=urn:btih:92042e65d1b38cd5d97c29baa4d0c9e2af46f355&dn=bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean-master.zip

rounakdatta 2y ago

Orthogonal question: Does bypassing of paywall somehow work for Substack? Can a solution like RealDebrid / SciHub, but for Substack exist?

1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20231223094834if_/https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean/-/archive/master/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean-master.tar.gz https://web.archive.org/web/20231223094834if_/https://gitlab...

NoelJacob 2y ago

I think a good idea would be forking Telegram's quick article view feature source code and developing on it.

EwanG 2y ago

The last couple of versions I tried to download gave TROJAN warnings from MS Defender. I had created an issue on the project notifying the developer, and I understood he was changing things to not give a "false positive". Perhaps GitLab didn't think they were false positives?

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

DizzyCsango 2y ago

Per magnolia's Twitter: magnolia1234_bpc @Magnolia1234B · 22m Update: tomorrow a new Firefox-release v3.6.4.0 (signed = security check) ! Manual update required with upload on X (new version will update automatically) For now no more public source code or request issues (use DM on X) https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B/status/1779050596181438791 https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B/status/1779050596181438791 WeTransfer already expired (should last 7 days), but new upload here:: https://t.co/8TADPNhiYW https://t.co/8TADPNhiYW

account42 2y ago
That's quite fishy.

DizzyCsango 2y ago

magnolia1234_bpc @Magnolia1234B · 22m Update: tomorrow a new Firefox-release v3.6.4.0 (signed = security check) ! Manual update required with upload on X (new version will update automatically) For now no more public source code or request issues (use DM on X) https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B/status/1779050596181438791 https://twitter.com/Magnolia1234B/status/1779050596181438791 WeTransfer already expired (should last 7 days), but new upload here: https://t.co/8TADPNhiYW https://t.co/8TADPNhiYW