Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Getting Around the NYT Paywall

Man, it's been forever since I posted to this. But school is basically out, and I've got some time again. So, here goes a quick tip that I just found useful.



The NYT moved to a paid subscription model a while ago (2nd time), which was unfortunate for me, since I'm poor as hell. But, there's ways around it, which I've just now stumbled across. Here goes:

Clear your cookies.

I was surprised by this one, as it's really simplistic. I would have thought they'd at least use IP addresses.

Stop the Page

Also very simplistic; But it works. Just stop the page from loading before the paywall overlay pops up.

And lastly:

Remove everything past the &gwh= part of the url


There was a bit of javascript you could paste into the url as well, but that didn't seem to work the one time I tried it real quick. Regardless, all 3 of the above methods work perfectly fine. Personally, I'm a bit surprised just how little effort went into securing content. Especially considering that it allegedly cost them $40-50 million to create. I imagine they'll tighten up security eventually, but until then, enjoy!
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42 comments:

  1. Oilfield TrashApril 27, 2011 at 10:13 AM

    That is pretty cool that you found a way around it.

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  2. Daniel SmothermanApril 27, 2011 at 10:19 AM

    Haha, that's pretty sweet. Following...

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  3. philmin9April 27, 2011 at 10:33 AM

    nice. Hard to believe the NYT wouldn't have a better system than this.

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  4. DaveApril 27, 2011 at 10:36 AM

    Very nice workaround

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  5. WesApril 27, 2011 at 10:41 AM

    interesting, pshhh NYT

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  6. Butcher BradleyApril 27, 2011 at 11:31 AM

    Nice post, clever.

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  7. Electric AddictApril 27, 2011 at 11:32 AM

    lol easiest hack ever nice

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  8. nooneApril 27, 2011 at 11:36 AM

    wat..

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  9. berlinbloggerApril 27, 2011 at 11:48 AM

    nice post:)

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  10. Miyamoto KaryuuApril 27, 2011 at 12:01 PM

    U are a clever man! xD

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  11. Solsby KidApril 27, 2011 at 12:05 PM

    Haha thats awesome man!

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  12. AnonymousApril 27, 2011 at 12:16 PM

    nice. I wonder how they managed to miss that

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  13. zepdragonApril 27, 2011 at 1:03 PM

    Interesting... would like to check out some code

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  14. MichelangeloApril 27, 2011 at 1:03 PM

    Aahaha, bad for them for letting that escape! :D

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  15. LegnoxApril 27, 2011 at 1:12 PM

    HAHahahaha definitely will give this a try :P

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  16. Astronomy PirateApril 27, 2011 at 1:14 PM

    I don't read the NYT much, but occasionally they might have a good article, so this is useful info. Thanks. I'm wondering how long until they figure out how to close this...

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  17. AnonymousApril 27, 2011 at 1:22 PM

    haha, those are some useful workaround tips! NYT puts out some good articles

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  18. RemiApril 27, 2011 at 1:45 PM

    Yeah, they are eventually gonna fix that because it's so easy, lol.

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  19. Give EverythingApril 27, 2011 at 2:27 PM

    wow!! very nice men, thanks for the info

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  20. GraftedApril 27, 2011 at 2:42 PM

    That's great, thanks!

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  21. Gambling DegenerateApril 27, 2011 at 3:25 PM

    free news has never been sweeter! haha cool trick

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  22. Bob lehcrorApril 27, 2011 at 6:06 PM

    Well, you guys that use this to actually read the articles are shooting yourselves in the feet. Newspapers need this revenue: NEED . It's not just profiteering.
    As the general pop goes over to reading the reports online we stop buying the papers - hence reducing the profits...
    So the paper quality starts to decline due to the publishers not being able to employ decent reporters, typesetters ECT.
    Thankfully we have the BBC, and here in Australia the ABC which are government supported agencies that supply Good unbiased news.

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  23. AnonymousApril 27, 2011 at 6:36 PM

    Great way to get NY NEWS for free :D

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  24. Entry Level TranslatorApril 27, 2011 at 7:12 PM

    Free news, pretty cool! Well, actually I get my news from other sources.

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  25. ZombieApril 27, 2011 at 7:35 PM

    Know how you feel being poor man...

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  26. MarkeeTeeVeeApril 27, 2011 at 7:47 PM

    cleverrrr :D

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  27. MoobeatApril 27, 2011 at 11:51 PM

    nice work arounds

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  28. The Game Store GuyApril 28, 2011 at 12:26 AM

    Wow. Sounds like they take lessons from PlayStation Network.

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  29. Andy StockdaleApril 28, 2011 at 1:30 AM

    haha yeah thats ridiculous! you would certainly think they'd put a little more effort in then that, works for us though haha

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  30. Andy StockdaleApril 28, 2011 at 1:30 AM

    oh and p.s cheers for the tip with embedding youtube vids, i wondered about that haha

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  31. Speedy EdApril 28, 2011 at 4:16 AM

    genius;) nice work dude

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  32. duffboiApril 28, 2011 at 9:03 AM

    kewl post for the pirates in all of us... ARR! hehehe

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  33. Jay ReidApril 28, 2011 at 9:24 AM

    lol that's handy :)

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  34. Just MeApril 28, 2011 at 12:51 PM

    sweet trick

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  35. SpeedNSaveApril 28, 2011 at 2:44 PM

    great trick i like it. thanks for sharing man.

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  36. King ElysiumApril 29, 2011 at 2:29 AM

    thanks for the info!

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  37. DootzkieApril 29, 2011 at 3:49 AM

    I love it when THE MAN wants to bleed you dry but forgets a few holes in his plan, here and there!
    Great!

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  38. AmbiApril 29, 2011 at 3:27 PM

    Can't believe they have this long-known security hole...

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  39. miousApril 29, 2011 at 4:09 PM

    just what I needed!

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  40. biboaApril 30, 2011 at 7:11 AM

    40-50 mil for this? what a fucked-up world

    utubed.blogspot.com

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  41. MeMay 2, 2011 at 1:49 AM

    Wow, the NYT spent all that effort for nothing.

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  42. **Hype.Planet**May 2, 2011 at 9:06 AM

    cool post!

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