Really?! ::Boggle::

After all, in addition to all the competition from other (still) free sources, they're offering certain classes easier access while keeping track of others. I guess I was thinking there'd be something on the server side, but that was naive, I guess.

http://www.boingboin...ent=Google+Reader

Cory Doctorow:

[...]

4. Which means that lots of people will take countermeasures to beat the #nytpaywall. The easiest of these, of course, will be to turn off cookies so that the Times's site has no way to know how many pages you've seen this month

5. Of course, the NYT might respond by planting secret permacookies, using Flash cookies, browser detection, third-party beacons, or secret ex-Soviet vat-grown remote-sensing psychics. At the very minimum, the FTC will probably be unamused to learn that the Grey Lady is actively exploiting browser vulnerabilities (or, as the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse statute puts it, "exceeding authorized access" on a remote system -- which carries a 20 year prison sentence, incidentally)

6. Even if some miracle of regulatory capture and courtroom ninjarey puts them beyond legal repercussions for this, the major browser vendors will eventually patch these vulnerabilities

7. And even if that doesn't work, someone clever will release one or more of: a browser redirection service that pipes links to nytimes.com through auto-generated tweets, creating valid Twitter referrers to Times stories that aren't blocked by the paywall; or write a browser extension that sets "referer=twitter.com/$VALID_TWEET_GUID", or some other clever measure that has probably already been posted to the comments below

8. The Times isn't stupid. They'll build all kinds of countermeasures to detect and thwart cookie-blocking, referer spoofing, and suchlike. These countermeasures will either be designed to err on the side of caution (in which case they will be easy to circumvent) or to err on the side of strictness -- in which case they will dump an increasing number of innocent civilians into the "You're a freeloader, pay up now" page, which is no way to convert a reader to a customer

[...]

(via Brad DeLong)

I guess I'm thinking that this is going to end up like "Times Select" unless they handle it better than they have so far. Micropayments or Donations or something like that would make sense if they don't want to drive people away from their web page. But, reading other articles, the point seems to be to encourage people to get the physical paper (even if only 1 day a week) - since that gets you all the digital content for no extra charge.

Forcing people to buy a digital subscription that includes smart-phone access even if they don't have a smart-phone, and charging more than double for people who want both smart-phone and iPad access, is stupid.

But who knows, maybe this will be a great success for them and for subscribers....

Lincoln's (not lincoln ;-) offering to pay for some free subscriptions - http://www.crainsnew...18/FREE/110319858 I haven't bothered with it, myself.

Cheers,
Scott.

Post #340,826 by Another Scott 3/24/11 5:32:04 PM Reply	Really?! ::Boggle::
Post #340,827 by drook 3/24/11 6:17:32 PM Reply	How do you think they track it? -- Drew
Post #340,829 by Another Scott 3/24/11 8:00:46 PM Reply	If it's money for something formerly free, I expected more. After all, in addition to all the competition from other (still) free sources, they're offering certain classes easier access while keeping track of others. I guess I was thinking there'd be something on the server side, but that was naive, I guess. http://www.boingboin...ent=Google+Reader Cory Doctorow: [...] 4. Which means that lots of people will take countermeasures to beat the #nytpaywall. The easiest of these, of course, will be to turn off cookies so that the Times's site has no way to know how many pages you've seen this month 5. Of course, the NYT might respond by planting secret permacookies, using Flash cookies, browser detection, third-party beacons, or secret ex-Soviet vat-grown remote-sensing psychics. At the very minimum, the FTC will probably be unamused to learn that the Grey Lady is actively exploiting browser vulnerabilities (or, as the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse statute puts it, "exceeding authorized access" on a remote system -- which carries a 20 year prison sentence, incidentally) 6. Even if some miracle of regulatory capture and courtroom ninjarey puts them beyond legal repercussions for this, the major browser vendors will eventually patch these vulnerabilities 7. And even if that doesn't work, someone clever will release one or more of: a browser redirection service that pipes links to nytimes.com through auto-generated tweets, creating valid Twitter referrers to Times stories that aren't blocked by the paywall; or write a browser extension that sets "referer=twitter.com/$VALID_TWEET_GUID", or some other clever measure that has probably already been posted to the comments below 8. The Times isn't stupid. They'll build all kinds of countermeasures to detect and thwart cookie-blocking, referer spoofing, and suchlike. These countermeasures will either be designed to err on the side of caution (in which case they will be easy to circumvent) or to err on the side of strictness -- in which case they will dump an increasing number of innocent civilians into the "You're a freeloader, pay up now" page, which is no way to convert a reader to a customer [...] (via Brad DeLong) I guess I'm thinking that this is going to end up like "Times Select" unless they handle it better than they have so far. Micropayments or Donations or something like that would make sense if they don't want to drive people away from their web page. But, reading other articles, the point seems to be to encourage people to get the physical paper (even if only 1 day a week) - since that gets you all the digital content for no extra charge. Forcing people to buy a digital subscription that includes smart-phone access even if they don't have a smart-phone, and charging more than double for people who want both smart-phone and iPad access, is stupid. But who knows, maybe this will be a great success for them and for subscribers.... Lincoln's (not lincoln ;-) offering to pay for some free subscriptions - http://www.crainsnew...18/FREE/110319858 I haven't bothered with it, myself. Cheers, Scott.

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