Bypass Paywall Reader, A website to bypass paywalls on articles to read for free by checking the link and scanning to see where it is available for free.
https://bypasspaywallreader.com/
I couldn't get it to do anything. It just seems to be checking for cached/archive copies of the article. The BPC browser extension still blows this out of the water.
I find it funny that HN readers often look down upon piracy or adblock on YouTube, but no one ever bats an eye when someone posts an archive.md link as the top comment on threads to bypass article paywalls.
Imagine YouTube didn’t exist, but rather 100 different videos sites. When trying to watch a video, it plays the first 15 seconds, then throws up a paywall, asking for a monthly subscription. The quality of the video is unknown, the videos the site hosts aren’t ones you’d want to come back to every day, and since there are so many sites, paying for all of them isn’t feasible.
This is the state of online news today. Subscriptions really only make sense for regular readers. I’m not sure how one decides to become a regular reader of a site when there is a paywall preventing them from sampling the goods.
If I could use something like ApplePay, with no sign up, no providing an email, or any of that nonsense to pay 10-25¢ to read an article, with little to no friction, I think I’d be more likely to do that for the occasional article. Without a widespread system like that, the public isn’t left with many options other than work around. It has to be cheap enough, and easy enough, that the work around aren’t really worth it.
Paying a small fee to read single articles has been tried many times, and failed. These payments amount to single digit percents of revenue, all the money is in subscribers. Because the people who wouldn't pay for a subscription wouldn't pay for a single article either.
There are two things that I think would work: Either mass syndication, so that your subscription gives you access to a ton of publication and the publications making their money from masses of people signing up. Or that people copy and paste a short and relevant part of an article instead of linking to it, when discussing it. I think that is fair use.
I used to subscribe to many publication, but then I kept rage quitting them. The only one I have left is the Economist. The New York Times was painful. I used to love reading it, but it just became a rag. I never managed to find anything to replace it.
Yeah, but I like to read articles on different sites but almost all of them have paywalls and their subscription cost is very high and I personally can't afford it. Ofcourse those who have money go buy and support them and avoid the hassle of copying each link then pasting, waiting and getting on to other site to read. But for people like me who can't afford this is the way. It's just letting people know that hey you can read this article without paying money from this website.
I just wanted to share it with other people like me, I am sure I am not the only one who cannot afford it and wants to read. It just tells where they can read, its not actually doing illegal by forcefully removing paywalls.
