Local News Website Says You Need To Pay To Read Its Stories, Says It's Collecting Visitor IPs To Sue

from the that'll-go-over-well dept

Tue, Oct 26th 2010 9:31am — Mike Masnick

Well, here's a fun one. Apparently, there's a local news site known as The North Country Gazette (don't click that just yet...) covering parts of upstate New York via a blog format. Rather than putting in place an actual technical paywall, the site has apparently decided to go with a paywall-by-threat model. If you visit a story on the site, it tells you that you're only allowed to view one page for free, and then they expect you to pay up:

Gotta love that Comic Sans font -- in red, no less. Anyway, if you do "abuse the privilege," apparently you come up against the following (which now appears to have been taken down, perhaps due to all of the attention):

In case you can't see/read the image, it reads:

A subscription is required at North Country Gazette. We allow only one free read per visitor. We are currently gathering IPs and computer info on persistent intruders who refuse to buy subscription and are engaging in a theft of services. We have engaged an attorney who will be doing a bulk subpoena demand on each ISP involved, particularly Verizon Droids, Frontier and Road Runner, and will then pursue individual legal actions.

Where to start? First, I love how "Verizon Droid" (a phone) is included in the list of ISPs. But, more to the point, this site seems to believe that if it just says you can only visit once without paying, and you don't, it has the right to then use your IP to sue you for "theft of services." I'd love to see how well that plays out in court.

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Filed Under: ip, paywalls, threats, voluntary

126 Comments

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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 9:37am

Really?
"But, more to the point, this site seems to believe that if it just says you can only visit once without paying, and you don't, it has the right to then use your IP to sue you for "theft of services." I'd love to see how well that plays out in court."

I wouldn't.
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- Joseph A Nagy Jr (profile), 28 Oct 2010 @ 3:55am
  
  Re: Really?
  Nor would I. One ruling in favor of the Gazette and it's over.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Chaos, 26 Oct 2010 @ 9:46am

Viral Advertisement
Sounds to me like an attempt to get attention.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 9:47am

IFRAME
I wonder what would happen if some other site started to add invisible iframes to random pages at that site.

Making people load pages from web sites without them knowing is laughably easy these days.
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- Joseph Rissler, 28 Oct 2010 @ 8:02am
  
  Re: IFRAME
  I was thinking I would put URLs to articles on a bunch of cheap PPC sites.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Jay (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 9:50am

Alas poor North Country Gazette
We barely knew ye. We'll pray for swift passage into the underworld. And two gold coins for Charron and your passing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
ofb2632 (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 9:54am

sue me
i just clicked on it and i hope they got my ip. I am currently very bored and would love to counter-sue for all the emotional damage this may have caused me. Now i am very afraid to click on things because i may get sued. That means when i go online, i get massive panic attacks. When i go outside and see lights that flash(esp red ones) i get post traumatic stress flashbacks and have to run back inside. If in my panic, i hurt anoyone, it is the fault of The North Country Gazette.

Hey north country gazette, do you see how easy it is to go overboard??? If you can do it, why can't we?

Oh, and you have to pay my rather expensive medical and legal bills also!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:01am
  
  Re: sue me
  Yep, I was just there too. The threats at the bottom of the page are making me feel ill also and I might feel the need to sue.
  
  This is just as ridiculous as the bowl of Halloween candy that is left on a porch, with a note to just take one - but in this case if you take more than one, the homeowner jumps out and beats a kid with a baseball bat.
  
  Really, if you require a subscription, then lock up your content.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:05am
    
    Re: Re: sue me
    LOL! Look at the ad halfway down the right side of the page. "Win without a Lawyer!" Maybe they have been reading that scammy advice themselves.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 9:56am

is that comic sans?
hahahahahha

who the hell is going to take that threat seriously?
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- Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:00am
  
  Re: is that comic sans?
  missed the text between the graphics....
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
a-dub (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:03am

I cant help but think that the reason they are doing this is due to a lack of web programming skills. Its like "we dont know how to keep track of what articles a visitor has read, so lets just put up a disclaimer instead of figuring out how this WWW thing works."

North Country Gazette == lame.
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- Robert Ring (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:08am
  
  Re:
  Hahaha, that's exactly what I was thinking.
  
  Also, "Please don't abuse the privilege"? What privilege? Since they've explicitly said that no one can read their articles without paying, they haven't offered any privilege.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:21am
  
  Re:
  that's what I got from it also. Looks like Jethro skipped the section on cookies... or ate it
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Free Capitalist (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:31am
  
  Re:
  It could be a compound budget/competence failure where they intended to firewall their private html servers from the Internet but couldn't afford it, and didn't know how to pull the plug.
  
  That's why they ended up coding the "Get off my site and don't come back you ingrate!" message.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - John Frank, 28 Oct 2010 @ 12:26am
    
    Re: Re:
    "they intended to firewall their private html servers from the Internet but couldn't afford it"
    
    erm... I'm going to guess you have no idea how this Internet thing works.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
ComputerAddict (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:15am

Hate to be the one to throw a wrench in that engine...
Hate to be the one to throw a wrench in that engine... but i believe all Verizon wireless phones would be on DHCP for IP Addresses along with probably 97% of Road Runner and Frontier customers... Boy I hope your neighbor didn't visit their site before that last power outage and the modems grabbing new IPs.

Then again if the newspaper loses power they'll probably lose all those IP's its been collecting since their web programmer probably hasn't figured out how to write the data to a file quite yet.
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- Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2010 @ 9:26pm
  
  Re: Hate to be the one to throw a wrench in that engine...
  Actually, the Verizon Droids are all a many to one NAT.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Chris, 28 Oct 2010 @ 6:51am
  
  Re: Hate to be the one to throw a wrench in that engine...
  Just an FYI... most DHCP servers keep a log of what MAC Address was given which DHCP address.
  
  So if you say 127.0.0.1 (this is an example so I'm using one that points back to your own PC.. I know this one is not DHCP) at Oct 12th at 5:04pm this is useful info.
  
  Each MAC address is a network card address... and is unique to that particular network card... in that MAC addy is actually enough info to tell what make and manufacturer the network card is... and it's unique.
  
  So once you have an IP address & Day/Time you can get the MAC addy... that you can then look in the arp tables to see if that MAC address is in use. Which if the MAC Addy is in use you can then trace it to a switch, blade, and port on the network gear... which then you should have a cut sheet pointing to where the wire in that switch is patched to which home.
  
  Now... you CAN manually edit you MAC address every time you log in... but most people don't.
  
  I'm not saying this because I'm trying to point out you don't know all this and that I'm somehow smarter than you... it's kinda what I do for a living.. so I HAVE to know it... it doesn't make me a better person... what I am trying to say is.. "dude be careful... you are more traceable than you think..."
  
  Anyway... be safe man.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- adam, 28 Oct 2010 @ 5:32pm
  
  Re: Hate to be the one to throw a wrench in that engine...
  Having a dynamic IP doesn't give you anonymity, or even plausible deniability. Your ISP knows when which user had which IP address. If the newspaper sued they would request the IP logs from the ISP and then go after whoever had that IP at the moment they accessed the site.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Pierre Wolff (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:15am

The newspaper industry is catching up to politicians in being the largest providers of material for comic relief. It's the industry that just keeps on giving :) You really have to wonder if a dimwitted set like the folks at this pub, are really the people that should be engaging writing the news for the rest to read ;)
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fugitive247 (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:16am

Clueless Wonders
The abject stupidity of North Country Gazette's stance is that they've practically invited all manner of assaults. It's a no-brainer that a DNS attack is likely in their immediate future. Anyone want to start a pool on anticipated timeframe? Sheesh!
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- latin angel (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:32am
  
  Re: Clueless Wonders
  No need to do a DNS attack, put them on Slashdot...
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - fugitive247 (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:46am
    
    Re: Re: Clueless Wonders
    True, but enough circulation of this article via re-tweets, etc. will garner the same outcome. Slashdot would only hasten the process.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- PRMan, 26 Oct 2010 @ 12:13pm
  
  Re: Clueless Wonders
  What you're saying is that someone should forward this story to 4chan /b/?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Charlie Potatoes, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:19am

Boys from the North Country
Exactly what North Country are they from? I've always thought of our gentle neighbors to the north as relatively benign... maybe they are in the north of France.
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- usotsuki, 27 Oct 2010 @ 4:00pm
  
  Re: Boys from the North Country
  Apparently, from the Watertown, NY area (which happens to be the same "North Country" I grew up in, and the location I associate most with that name).
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:22am

NEWS FLASH:

The North Country Gazette SUCKS!

* Reading this constitutes use of services and requires payment. Please send payment to avoid legal action
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 8:55pm
  
  Re:
  Reading this Techdirt comment requires payment. Please send payment of $5 to me right away. If you read it a second time you must send me $10.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - David (profile), 27 Oct 2010 @ 1:50pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Damn, I blinked twice when I read your comment - guess I owe you 15.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:22am

I can see the music industry doing this:

"Warning: By purchasing this CD, you are agreeing that you will only listen to it ONCE and ONLY ONCE. After listening to it, you must discard it and buy a new one."

The reason?

"Because we are entitled to get paid."
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:22am

dos attack?
site down right now 10/26/2010 1:23pm est
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- Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:24am
  
  Re: dos attack?
  Ah, so that explains why they don't want people reading more than one article.
  
  Their servers can't handle it.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:25am
    
    Re: Re: dos attack?
    Ha Ha Ha Ha, I think you got it!
    
    They use a dial-up connection: 1 user at a time.
    
    LMAO!
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
fogbugzd (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:23am

EULA
This is nothing but an extension of the click-through EULA. They have just eliminated the click.

On the bright side, they haven't patented eliminating the click.
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- ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:24am
  
  Re: EULA
  Don't give them ideas...
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 28 Oct 2010 @ 10:55am
  
  Re: EULA
  Yet!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 28 Oct 2010 @ 10:55am
  
  Re: EULA
  Yet!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
iamtheky (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:29am

How about a site that just links to the places they jacked the stories. Here's the current top two for free.

http://www.lungusa.org/associations/states/new-york/pressroom/news-releases/2009/env-groups -reaction-to-dec-chief-firing-10-22-10.html

http://www.aspca.org/news/national/10-22-10.html
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rabbit wise (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:29am

Um. Wow. I only went hunting to find out where in New York this was.

http://www.rcfp.org/news/2003/1223jmaxam.html

She's investigative journalism's Alex Burrows.
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James Carmichael (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:32am

Gotcha!
By reading this sentence you agree to give me a million dollars. If you don't, I'll sue you.

Ah, the honor system.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:33am

This looks like a job for Supe^H^H^H^H 4chan!
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PeteProdge (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:33am

"Fair Use is not applicable" - oh really?
According to http://encyclopediadramatica.com/June_Maxam, she has also stated: "This article is copyright protected and Fair Use is not applicable" Oh dear, oh dear, ohdear.
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- Mike Masnick (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 11:00am
  
  Re: "Fair Use is not applicable" - oh really?
  According to http://encyclopediadramatica.com/June_Maxam, she has also stated: "This article is copyright protected and Fair Use is not applicable" Oh dear, oh dear, ohdear.
  
  Ahhhhhhhhhhh. I knew this site sounded familiar. We wrote about them a few years back over their crazy fair use claims:
  
  http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20061024/113745.shtml
  
  She then threatened the people who pointed out the problems with her fair use statement by saying they were "practicing law without a license."
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - ofb2632 (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 11:10am
    
    Re: Re: "Fair Use is not applicable" - oh really?
    Mike,
    
    Look at what has happened over the last 2 years concerning 'fair use' and how things are being warped. Do you honestly think there is not a judge out there that won't agree with her now? I am absolutely sure she has a good shot with her outrageous argument if she gets a right leaning judge.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Marcus Carab (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 11:24am
    
    Re: Re: "Fair Use is not applicable" - oh really?
    They are really totally crazy on that site. After a few minutes of browsing I discovered:
    
    - They still have a letter up saying the site is free and begging for donations, despite their warnings
    
    - When you DO go to their "sign up" page, there is no registration form at all or even a set price. Just a Paypal payment form with a box to ender how much you are sending (this despite the fact that two tiered subscription prices are listed on the ad). I suppose you are supposed to just send them money and wait for them to contact you.
    
    (additionally, the ad linking to that paypal page is pushing the "NCG Daily Digest" email newsletter. I don't see anything on the site explaining how to sign up to view articles on the site itself.)
    
    - Their TOS goes on about registering with "AccessEach" to view the site - even though as far as I can tell no such registration system exists anywhere, and I have no idea what AccessEach is.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 11:28am
  
  Re: "Fair Use is not applicable" - oh really?
  That's one glorious write up.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:33am

Never go full retard. You don't buy that? Look at The North Country Gazette, 2010. Went full retard, came home empty handed...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- robin, 26 Oct 2010 @ 1:05pm
  
  Re:
  damn near the best comment....ever! had to clean off the dask after that one. thx!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:34am

Please don't push this button again
This reminds me of a custom app I encountered at a place I used to work at. It had some button in the app that if you pushed it it said. "You do not have proper permissions to use this feature. Your identity has been recorded by management." (no it wasn't a joke) So after that I pressed the button every chance I got. Sadly nothing was going to come of it, the guy who wrote the app got canned which is one of the reasons I was working there. (coincidently to help replace said app).
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Skip, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:37am

North Country Gazette editor is a bat
June Maxam has a long history of being a crazy beotch. Just another freak out there with a website and a keyboard.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
adaviel (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:37am

robots.txt at northcountrygazette.org
Apparently there's no limit on recursively downloading the site with wget and never reading any warning. Or on reading it via Google's cache (682,000 results):

User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /axs
Disallow: /cgi-bin/

User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /axs/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
DS, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:42am

Log in?
If you click on their terms of service, they mention an account and password.... sooo.... where would I log into their page?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
PeteProdge (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:42am

She's done time in jail!
It gets even funnier when you read all about the history of North Country Gazzette owner June Maxam...

She's done time in the slammer, back in 2000, for harrassing people!

"June Maxam, a longtime newspaper publisher, was convicted in December 2000 of harassing her neighbors, and was sentenced to 9-1/2 months in jail. She has filed numerous appeals in the case -- citing jury and evidence tampering -- and has long held that her arrest and conviction were in retaliation for stories she published that criticized local officials in and around Chestertown, N.Y."

Source: http://rcfp.org/news/2003/1223jmaxam.html
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- Joe, 27 Oct 2010 @ 6:21pm
  
  Re: She's done time in jail!
  As dumb as she may be I wouldn't be surprised one bit if she did harass her neighbors and at the same time was not provably guilty of a crime. The system is rigged and the only way they get convictions is because of a flawed system. Things like evidence/jury tampering isn't hard to believe nor are naive jurors. If you get accused of something chances are you will be hauled off to jail bye-bye goes any chances of you being put back in society even if you are innocent. Guilt or innocence has little to do with it. It is wishful thinking that you could get a fair trial. Reality is the system just persecutes people.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Marcus Carab (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:42am

This just gets better... has anyone looked at their "Support This Site" plea?

We present the news and reports to you at no charge but we must ask for your help and financial support to allow us to continue to keep the website free, to pay the costs of maintaining the website and the expenses of gathering the news and reporting it to you.

http://www.northcountrygazette.org/support-this-site/

So - claim you do it for free, ask for donations, and ALSO claim it isn't free?
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- Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:46am
  
  Re:
  There's probably some kind of tax loophole involved with that kind of logic.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Niall (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 12:17pm
    
    Re: Re:
    More like a brain loophole...
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Qritiqal (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:44am

Where's my cut?
If this site charges for reading more than one article, but allows me to "share" articles on Facebook, do I get a cut of their revenue for helping distribute?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:47am

RPS...

Residual Pinhead Stupidity
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porkster, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:48am

I only read part of an article
I only read part of an article, does this mean I can have another half of an article? After all I didn't get to the bottom to read the disclaimer.

Besides it's entrapment. The snippets on the home page invite you to (Read more...) then when you do, bing they've got you.

Oh no, I've now read 3 articles, I'll be hiding under the bed till the FEDs come for me...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 10:48am

I don't know if it's just because I have noscript, but I couldn't find any link to pay even if I wanted to. Maybe I'll have to snake the whole site to find it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
TheOldFart (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 11:03am

It's struggling
I got a couple of broken socket failures and one timeout before I got to the site.

I read three stories, but my memory is so short I forgot the first two by the time I read the third one. Does that count as only consuming one story or am I going to be arrested along with the rest of you filthy criminals?

I'll just wait right over here on the Group W bench.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Paul L (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 11:09am

Interesting snippit
I found an interesting snippet of text when you click on the "Support this site" link.

"We present the news and reports to you at no charge but we must ask for your help and financial support to allow us to continue to keep the website free, to pay the costs of maintaining the website and the expenses of gathering the news and reporting it to you."

So when you click the link to support them, they are then telling you the site is free and they provide access at no charge.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ryan Jones, 26 Oct 2010 @ 11:11am

images blocked
Hey Mike, whatever you're using to host images, websense (blindly installed by our corporate IT department here) has deemed worthy of being blocked.

Can't read any of them - neither can any of the thousands of employees here.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Mike Masnick (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 12:56pm
  
  Re: images blocked
  Hey Mike, whatever you're using to host images, websense (blindly installed by our corporate IT department here) has deemed worthy of being blocked.
  
  Can't read any of them - neither can any of the thousands of employees here.
  
  Ugh. We had been using Flickr, but the terms of service there were questionable, so we moved over to Imgur, which has become quite popular these days. I'm surprise Websense would block Imgur.
  
  Anyway, we're still working on a better solution, but that's annoying.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Almost Anonymous (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 2:11pm
    
    Re: Re: images blocked
    Interestingly enough, our corporation uses Websense for all of it's blocking needs as well, and the images were not blocked for me. I'm guessing that each customer probably gets a "basic" blocked package (whitehouse.com anyone?) plus their own customized/requested blocks.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Name Goes Here, 26 Oct 2010 @ 9:43pm
    
    Re: Re: images blocked
    I'm surprise Websense would block Imgur.
    
    There's a popular reddit subgroup that uses imgur to upload their sexy pictures. That could explain it.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
out_of_the_blue, 26 Oct 2010 @ 11:16am

Why aren't you touting them for "monetizing" news aggregation?
I like this one, supports my beliefs:
"ERIE COUNTY��An Erie County businessman who allegedly lied on company payroll records to receive a reduced workers� compensation premium is under arrest."

And I can believe that the publisher was jailed for reporting on county officials, too, from the number of "muckraking" articles that are something of a novelty these days. Two pedophiles, a nurse seeking a hit, State Senator indicted, many more. And there are numerous ads to pay for it all (only five of the ad hosts are in my hosts file).

So except for the one (perhaps) mistake, looks to me like you should be promoting its "business model".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 11:40am
  
  Re: Why aren't you touting them for "monetizing" news aggregation?
  And I can believe that the publisher was jailed for reporting on county officials, too, from the number of "muckraking" articles that are something of a novelty these days
  
  Riiight. Reposting articles from elsewhere pretending they are own is nothing to be jailed over, unless you are a nutty conspiracy theory lover.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
/b/, 26 Oct 2010 @ 11:43am

all your servers are belong to us
signed, anonymous
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 11:48am

save money
block every ip form your web server....
then when someoen pays you for somehting they dont know you really have ( LOL ) then you allow that ip....

haha funny
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 12:59pm

Also funny that they post "COPYRIGHT 2010 - NORTH COUNTRY GAZETTE All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of the publisher." just below the bookmark and share link. They also allow RSS feeds from their website. Which means you can read it from RSS without actually going to the site. How do they expect to get paid for that? What morons! They can't be serious!
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jsl4980 (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 1:44pm

Considering the readers it probably works
I have quite a few relatives in the area that the North Country Gazette serves, and most of the publication's audience doesn't have a great understanding of computers, the internet, or any applicable laws. I'm guessing that this warning may be enough to scare a few people away from their site. But it probably won't do anything to get more people to give them money.
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David Sanger (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 3:11pm

Access granted
Unfortunately every time I ask them for access to one of their pages using my browser they immediately agree to my request and send it to me.

This is not my choice. They choose to respond to my request and send me the page.

Duh.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 3:53pm

The North Country Gazette was the only media who reported the demise of the chicken. Special.
Still looks like a friggin wordpress blog.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 4:42pm

403'd..

lol
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 4:44pm
  
  Re:
  Even better, 403'd if you click on Mike's link
  
  double lol!
  
  She's safe from everything except the dastardly copy/past into a new tab!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2010 @ 6:38pm

Haha they changed their message...

"A subscription is needed for your future access to The North Country Gazette. To subscribe, see the ad to the right. You are entitled to read only one article for free. If you wish to read more, a subscription is required. Please don’t be dishonest, don’t abuse the privilege"

Sounds less threatening now :(
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Craig (profile), 26 Oct 2010 @ 9:42pm

They claim full copyright but...
"COPYRIGHT 2010 - NORTH COUNTRY GAZETTE All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of the publisher." - so before I click on the three links that they provide to add the post to Delicious, Meneame and Digg, I have to get their express written permission?
I SO CONFOOSED!

By the way, I've been 'reading' as many articles I can before boredom hits OH WAIT...boredom has arrived. :)
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Lisae Boucher (profile), 27 Oct 2010 @ 5:46am

Streisand effect?
This site is now falling for the Streisant effect and considering the type of site that it is, it might just be exactly what they wanted! HOAX! Don't fall for it! Just wait until they actually start to take legal steps, then report about it. Because now, you're just helping the site to become more popular.

I really think TechDirt has just fallen for some hoax... GREAT! :-)
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- RandomGuy (profile), 27 Oct 2010 @ 6:35am
  
  Re: Streisand effect?
  It's no hoax, Maxam really is that idiodic.
  
  Although I must admit I did increase her hits a tad, because after reading this article I just had to read multiple pages. Even if I had to paste the URL in myself, seeing as links from Techdirt land on a 403 page.
  
  In other news today, I need something far more productive to spend my time doing.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2010 @ 6:55am

Re:
how about finding all the things your supposedly supposed to pay for like http://www.northcountrygazette.org/thescoop.html or any articles posted since Sunday..

fun
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Chily8, 27 Oct 2010 @ 7:17am

Use a VPN
There are a couple of problems.

First, someone could use one of the subscription proxy services that keep no logs.

Second, someone could use a program like Evidence Eliminator to erase any evidence from their hard disk
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2010 @ 7:50am

Let see them sue to DoD. I will now visit their site 30 time a day.
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Gregg L. DesElms (profile), 27 Oct 2010 @ 10:42am

Oy... this should all not be taken so seriously
Of course the story needed to be told, and so thanks, Mike, for so doing. And you're right about how silly it is, and how the paper would likely not have a foot on which to stand in court.

But this little "newspaper" is a joke... and I don't mean just for its silly notices and threats.

It's an ultra-conservative rag that's not only so amateurish as a rag, but is also so disconnected from how the Internet works, that's it's not even worth reading or even taking seriously as a "publication."

It's a joke. Just ignore it.
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Justin Olbrantz (Quantam), 27 Oct 2010 @ 4:05pm

I just got this from the home page of the Gazette. Looks like the issue is moot.

"Forbidden

You don't have permission to access / on this server.

Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request."
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proxylist.co, 27 Oct 2010 @ 4:21pm

Can access to your site easily
One IP address will not work.

In fact, I can read all articles/pages using the proxy services http://proxylist.co with best proxy tool FF plugin to manage the proxies (http://proxylist.co/tools ).
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Joe, 27 Oct 2010 @ 4:56pm

Try this
Got a server? Check to see if the site is up:

ab -c 40 -n 50 http://www.northcountrygazette.org/

:)

"n" sets the number of times to benchmark the site.
"c" is the number of requests for each batch ("n)
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Rustybadger, 27 Oct 2010 @ 5:41pm

Even better
Now, every single article is "password protected". This is hilarious.

I hope her bandwidth bills kill her.
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Tim, 27 Oct 2010 @ 5:47pm

I'm feeling plucky today.
I'm going to incur the wrath of North Country and repost a snippet of one their articles without their permission.

"and"

Come get me.
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Nospam, 27 Oct 2010 @ 5:59pm

Fine, they can do that, but I can do THIS.
Fine. They can do that. Me? I just added their website to my hosts file, pointing to 127.0.0.1. That way I will NEVER visit their site, even inadvertently.

127.0.0.1 www.northcountrygazette.org
127.0.0.1 northcountrygazette.org

Works really well.
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Philly Phil, 27 Oct 2010 @ 6:02pm

Baited Trap?
This story remains me of Tricker Treating with the house that puts out the bucket of candy with a sign that says, "Please take two." Is it "two for each hand" or "two at a time" or "Please take two and if you take more than two, we are going to press charges for petty theft?"

Moreover, a judge recently ruled in a California case (where the Facebook User Policy was violated in a successful attempt to harass a teenage girl) that there must be proof that the a site's user agreement was actually read. And, simply checking the "I agree" box doesn't count. Any judge is going to rule if you want people to pay for your product, you shouldn't give it out for free.

Just like the people who put the bucket on the porch for tricker-treating, these guys have to expect that not everyone is going to comply with their request.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2010 @ 6:54pm

I am spidering their website with wget from work as I speak! :)
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PPNSteve (profile), 27 Oct 2010 @ 7:14pm

Forbidden You don't have permission to access / on this server. Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request. Apache/2.0.63 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.0.63 OpenSSL/0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 mod_bwlimited/1.4 mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 Server at www.northcountrygazette.org Port 80 WOW, such a nice and well maintained site.
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Anonymous, 27 Oct 2010 @ 7:26pm

Reading heaps of the same
I cant work out if I'm allowed to read the same page over and over again in fast succession, like with wget or something.

The EULA seems to only prohibit reading multiple pages.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2010 @ 7:53pm

Actually you would want to spider this:
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/sitemap8.xml
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anon, 27 Oct 2010 @ 8:04pm

Well, I'm hammering their articles through TOR. Catch me if you can!
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anon, 27 Oct 2010 @ 8:04pm

Well, I'm hammering their articles through TOR. Catch me if you can!
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Anonymous North Countryer, 27 Oct 2010 @ 8:17pm

The funny thing is, I actually get a 403 error when I try to visit the site. But yes over the years she has been a complete nut-job. And yes I live in the north country, where there was actually a little report on this in the local newspaper today.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2010 @ 8:57pm

Annnnd they're back.

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:
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gregh3285, 27 Oct 2010 @ 9:25pm

Geesh
The honest, good, upstanding person in me feels truly sorry that this woman must live her life in such a sad state. To go through life being bitter and mean-spirited is truly sad. My hope is that through this, somehow, she can realize that a) mean people suck and b) I've become a mean person.

Until that time:
$ for i in {1..100000}; do wget -r --tries=10 http://www.northcountrygazette.org/; done
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james, 27 Oct 2010 @ 9:42pm

sites down...haha
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Annoyed, 27 Oct 2010 @ 10:47pm

The epitome of stupidity. And they do news?
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Lisae Boucher (profile), 28 Oct 2010 @ 12:57am

First the Streisant effect, now the Titanic effect! The site just went down! Probably because they had too many visitors and thus hit the virtual iceberg of bandwidth overload. :-)
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Sammy the Seal, 28 Oct 2010 @ 2:23am

Douchebags Inc
Forbidden

You don't have permission to access / on this server.

Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache/2.0.63 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.0.63 OpenSSL/0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 mod_bwlimited/1.4 mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 Server at www.northcountrygazette.org Port 80
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Jeff Little of Troy Ohio, 28 Oct 2010 @ 4:12am

Going out of business soon
Its so sad that companies are charging from current new (which can be found elsewhere) If they where smart (which the obviously are not) they should be charging for their archives.

This is my First (and last Visit here)

Stupid Company
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Dongleman, 28 Oct 2010 @ 4:39am

Try their HTTPS Port...
https://www.northcountrygazette.org/
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Oct 2010 @ 6:21am

The https link now just shows a "Great Success / Apache is working..." message.

I can't believe I'm unable to read my one free article...
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Gary Stanton, 28 Oct 2010 @ 8:17am

My time is precious...
I charge for my time. I'm pretty sure my hourly rate for time spent reading their articles, is much higher than the subscription cost of said articles. Therefore, I think they'll owe me money.
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narcissus, 29 Oct 2010 @ 6:17am

site down?
Clicked the link in the article - admin prompt? =)
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Poster, 29 Oct 2010 @ 4:55pm

Hate to really put a monkey wrench in her machine
I am so afraid. I am in another country where US courts dont make the rules. SO SUE BEATCH!!!! (As I invariably click on another article just to make sure she gets my international IP address.
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BackPackAdam (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 11:52pm

Main Page Forbidden
The main page throws up a 403 error, but a quick google search of the entire address comes up with multiple options that work.

For example, I've found that http://www.northcountrygazette.org/center.html works just fine and dandy.

Does looking at the main page count as my one article view?
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samu, 30 Oct 2010 @ 4:15am

corporations
and corporations help ruin the internet a little bit more
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foop, 30 Oct 2010 @ 4:45am

while http://www.northcountrygazette.org/center.html now *also* 403s, http://www.northcountrygazette.org/index.html is just fine....
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foop, 30 Oct 2010 @ 4:50am

ahahahaha

main page no longer 403ing for me (possibly because I got there via an internal link?) and one of the stories on the front page said

"This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:"

I typed "password" in the little box, and voila, the story was revealed!
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foop, 30 Oct 2010 @ 4:51am

oh, no, whoops, actually it was just a story with a similar headline. That password didn't work.
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FratBoy, 30 Oct 2010 @ 8:27am

This site is prime for Rick-rolling.
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Drea (profile), 17 Oct 2011 @ 12:34pm

This is brilliant! I know I'm a year behind but I've just been threatened by June Maxam. She claims she's 'investigating' a story about Lennox, a dog seized by Belfast City Council under BSL laws. All she's doing is regurgitating info and opinions and passing them off as investigating! Oh and apparently the NCG is known the world over which is why 'they' asked her to do this. I have no idea who 'they' is and didn't want to ask her in case she charged me for the information!
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Miss Kim, 10 Nov 2011 @ 6:30am

Threatened, two days ago ...
June Maxam has also openly threatened, via Facebook, that I will be sued for "liable" and that I have also been reported to Facebook for "liable". Isn't it libel ???
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- Drea (profile), 10 Nov 2011 @ 7:24am
  
  Re: Threatened, two days ago ...
  Oh she's back is she? She de-activated her Facebook page for a while after getting a lot of stick on a page about a dog taken under BSL. She was asked by the dog's owners not to use anything because she had such a lot of bad press. She then went on to threaten 'you people' for badmouthing her.
  
  She just trawls the internet and copies, word for word, what other sites post on their pages.
  
  For a journo you'd think she'd know the difference between 'libel' and 'liable'...says a lot about her really!
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Drea (profile), 10 Nov 2011 @ 7:55am

Bless, she really is a little odd, isn't she? She doesn't get it that in the UK, the majority of online news site let you read their articles for FREE!

"It is with regret that due to excessive usage of The North Country Gazette website which has caused numerous outages and extra costs as well abusive messages received by people who seem to believe that they should have unlimited free access and that we should work for nothing, certain articles including our extensive work on the Lennox case will now be available to subscribers only.

This saddens us because it was our intent and still is to bring public awareness to the case as well as to the highly discriminatory breed specific legislation and unfair laws that are killing dogs in the United Kingdomand Northern Ireland simply because of the way they look. We had hoped that our efforts and work would help free Lennox and send him home where he belongs with his family and his bestest friend, little Brooke.

In the past several days since we asked for donations to help defray the expenses of maintaining the website, only one person contributed and that person, known to us, was involved in conducting a ChipIn themselves, trying to raise money to bring their own dog home. We doubled their contribution to us and returned it to them, to help free their family pet.

We were certainly willing to continue with our coverage of the cases and allowing free access if some contributions had been forthcoming to help with the costs. Sadly, there weren�t any. Instead, people berated us and in essence told us it was our DUTY and OBLIGATION to make the news available to them for nothing. Some of the comments became so abusive, it became necessary to disable the comment feature.

One abusive message in particular bothered us. The woman accused us of �getting rich� from Lennox. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have incurred large expenses in opening our website to everyone instead of subscribers only, and donating our time and resources in covering the Lennox case and those of the other dogs and related issues. She seems to have a warped perception about the world and doesn�t think that the media should get paid for reporting the news. Apparently she thinks the media is an arm of the government, subsidized by the government. This isn�t Pravada. This is the United States of Americ.

Its upsetting when there�s so much traffic from people who demand free access that it takes down the website for everyone and even I can�t access my account to post new articles or make administrative changes. Even the State of New York apparently believes that The North Country Gazette owes them free access and that they should have unlimited access at anytime they wish. It�s not gonna happen without a subscription or supporting advertising.

Therefore, the only solution is to limit the access to stop the excessive costs and control the traffic.

My heart goes out to the dogs�Lennox, Simba, Venus and the others who have been and are being victimized and especially their families. I sincerely hope that these dogs and the others who have not been so fortunate to have had media coverage, don�t have access to social media. Could I do it for them I would. I have tried to help those that I could. I�m extremely sorry that some individuals think big profits were realized or that our efforts weren�t sincere. 11-7-11"
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CharonPDX, 27 Dec 2012 @ 12:40pm

And it only took two years...
Looks like they STILL have their paywall up (in fact, they don't even allow referred connections in.)

But every article has a tag at the bottom:

The North Country Gazette needs your help to continue. Without your financial support, the website will not be able to continue after Jan. 1. To subscribe, see the ads to the right of this article. If you wish to donate, leave a tip in the tip jar at the site. New advertisers are always welcome. Contact NCG at news@northcountrygazette.org for more information. Thank you.
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Drea, 27 Dec 2012 @ 1:11pm

Hmmmm, call me cynical but I fear she will still be here in the New Year. One can but hope though
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Awais Qasim, 11 Jun 2013 @ 2:44pm

Not Possible to implement
With all the proxy servers and VPN options available its not possible to implement a system to track who visited what and how many times...
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eileen, 18 Jul 2015 @ 8:18pm

North country gazette crazy lady
I had a run in with this old bag today I accidentally came across an article she wrote about a BSC case in KS. I asked a simple question and she responded soooooo rudely! I was honestly so baffled that I had to see if this was an isolated incident. Apparently she is notorious for threatening to sue people and even did jail time for false harassment accusations. There are many many posts about this crazy woman. Her site needs to be taken down.

https://onclickads.net/?zoneid=191098&pbk2=0148e29c3d2fe4d254e7e5d192214c3a6173049272710981 917&r=%2Foc%2Fhan%2Ftomb
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