Paywall On-Ramps Get A Workaround

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Paywall On-Ramps Get A Workaround

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Remember BugMeNot.com? The site was started in 2003 to let users, peeved by a growing crop of news site registration walls, borrow someone else’s login.

Seven years on - for registration wall workaround, read pay wall hack. Web developers have made BreakThePayWall, a browser extension that helps users overcome part of news publishers’ subscription strategy.

Available for Internet Explorer and, soon, Firefox, BreakThePayWall works mainly - and merely - by deleting cookies sites use to limit the number of stories users can read before having to subscribe. Deleting the cookies means the publisher’s site forgets how close the reader is to the “pay up” threshold.

In theory, it could be a challenge to those that use Google’s First-Click-Free scheme, which publishers can use to let searchers read only up to five articles per month before subscribing. No BreakThePayWall user numbers are available and the hack seems unlikely to severely impact publishers’ strategies because it has not gained widespread attention on the web.

But it is a clear response to the recent re-emergence of paywalls and may prompt proprietors to think of new techniques. It’s basically a sign of the times.

Web users can already employ the same technique by manually deleting cookies in their browser; BreakThePayWall just tries to make it easier.

“The paywall thing came about because of our annoyance at how easy it is to get around them,” BreakThePayWall’s developer, who did not give his name, told me. “Lots of compromises are made and basic security not adhered to. The utility currently uses cookie and referrer techniques - we have not come across any other techniques… yet.”

BreakThePayWall is thought to have piqued the interest of FT.com, which uses First-Click-Free to give five free articles per month to Google (NSDQ: GOOG) searchers.

The developer is also working on a hack that lets users more easily claim compensation for train delays.

Robert Andrews

@robertandrews Mar 22, 2010 4:12 AM ET

Posted In: Media & Publishing, Online News

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The Magus

ah Jeremy is not is what he claims to be. Arrogant VC gent who has zero experience with real sales and management. The grin says it all. RockYou, his baby, has a major identity crisis. What exactly is its mission statement Jeremy? It has 35 sales people, and only $6mm in brand ad revenue for 2009? Its not a social game developer. Its a hack that copies apps from others.

Meh is right, this “analysis” is obvious, cheap games, faster dev cycle, ability to spam facebook users. This just implies there will quickly be a bubble of capital.

meh

these are same reasons why a bubble is developing, and will pop in the next year or two. when development is so cheap, anyone can develop. sure, it takes $50m to develop a AAA game, but when it's out on the market, there aren't 100 other $50m games to compete with. same with distribution: when it's frictionless, anyone can distribute. this is why i block a game whenever i get a notification about it. as for discovery, this will become much harder once facebook's new policies are enforced. guess what? no more spamming your friends about some wandering cow. as for marketing dollars, zynga is spending a boatload on facebook ads. cheap development + frictionless distribution + vc dollars = bubble. will be interesting to see what this space looks like five years from now. my guess? it will be consolidated by a few large players making *gasp* a few hit games. personally, i'll be thankful: i find the "games" put out by zynga, playdom, playfish, etc. completely useless. i really do hope they get better, but i'm not holding my breath. they're so focused on monetization that they forgot that games have to be fun

Basilio

very nice insight. Thanks

kaveh

Thanks for the post ... very informative.

Perhaps in a follow-up post, you could cover the characteristics of the symbiotic relationship between the social game publishers and major social networks, and what could threaten/disrupt it.