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
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: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.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Really?
I wouldn't.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Viral Advertisement
[ link to this | view in thread ]
IFRAME
Making people load pages from web sites without them knowing is laughably easy these days.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Alas poor North Country Gazette
[ link to this | view in thread ]
sue me
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 thread ]
is that comic sans?
who the hell is going to take that threat seriously?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: is that comic sans?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: sue me
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 thread ]
North Country Gazette == lame.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: sue me
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
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 thread ]
Hate to be the one to throw a wrench in that engine...
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Clueless Wonders
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Boys from the North Country
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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 thread ]
"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."
[ link to this | view in thread ]
dos attack?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
EULA
On the bright side, they haven't patented eliminating the click.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: dos attack?
Their servers can't handle it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: EULA
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: dos attack?
They use a dial-up connection: 1 user at a time.
LMAO!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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
[ link to this | view in thread ]
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2003/1223jmaxam.html
She's investigative journalism's Alex Burrows.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
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 thread ]
Gotcha!
Ah, the honor system.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Clueless Wonders
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
"Fair Use is not applicable" - oh really?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Please don't push this button again
[ link to this | view in thread ]
North Country Gazette editor is a bat
[ link to this | view in thread ]
robots.txt at northcountrygazette.org
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /axs
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /axs/
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Log in?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
She's done time in jail!
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
[ link to this | view in thread ]
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/support-this-site/
So - claim you do it for free, ask for donations, and ALSO claim it isn't free?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Where's my cut?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Clueless Wonders
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Residual Pinhead Stupidity
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I only read part of an article
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 thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: "Fair Use is not applicable" - oh really?
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 thread ]
It's struggling
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 thread ]
Interesting snippit
"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 thread ]
Re: Re: "Fair Use is not applicable" - oh really?
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 thread ]
images blocked
Can't read any of them - neither can any of the thousands of employees here.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Why aren't you touting them for "monetizing" news aggregation?
"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 thread ]
Re: Re: "Fair Use is not applicable" - oh really?
- 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 thread ]
Re: "Fair Use is not applicable" - oh really?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Why aren't you touting them for "monetizing" news aggregation?
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 thread ]
all your servers are belong to us
[ link to this | view in thread ]
save money
then when someoen pays you for somehting they dont know you really have ( LOL ) then you allow that ip....
haha funny
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Clueless Wonders
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: images 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 thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Considering the readers it probably works
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: images blocked
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Access granted
This is not my choice. They choose to respond to my request and send me the page.
Duh.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Still looks like a friggin wordpress blog.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
lol
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
double lol!
She's safe from everything except the dastardly copy/past into a new tab!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
"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 :(
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
They claim full copyright but...
I SO CONFOOSED!
By the way, I've been 'reading' as many articles I can before boredom hits OH WAIT...boredom has arrived. :)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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 thread ]
Streisand effect?
I really think TechDirt has just fallen for some hoax... GREAT! :-)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
fun
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Use a VPN
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
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Oy... this should all not be taken so seriously
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Boys from the North Country
[ link to this | view in thread ]
"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."
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Can access to your site easily
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 ).
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Try this
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)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Even better
I hope her bandwidth bills kill her.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I'm feeling plucky today.
"and"
Come get me.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Fine, they can do that, but I can do THIS.
127.0.0.1 www.northcountrygazette.org
127.0.0.1 northcountrygazette.org
Works really well.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Baited Trap?
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: She's done time in jail!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Reading heaps of the same
The EULA seems to only prohibit reading multiple pages.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/sitemap8.xml
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Geesh
Until that time:
$ for i in {1..100000}; do wget -r --tries=10 http://www.northcountrygazette.org/; done
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Hate to be the one to throw a wrench in that engine...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
erm... I'm going to guess you have no idea how this Internet thing works.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Douchebags Inc
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
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Really?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Going out of business soon
This is my First (and last Visit here)
Stupid Company
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Try their HTTPS Port...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I can't believe I'm unable to read my one free article...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Hate to be the one to throw a wrench in that engine...
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 thread ]
Re: IFRAME
[ link to this | view in thread ]
My time is precious...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: EULA
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: EULA
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Hate to be the one to throw a wrench in that engine...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
site down?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Hate to really put a monkey wrench in her machine
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Main Page Forbidden
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?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
corporations
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Threatened, two days ago ...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Threatened, two days ago ...
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!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
"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"
[ link to this | view in thread ]
And it only took two years...
But every article has a tag at the bottom:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Not Possible to implement
[ link to this | view in thread ]
North country gazette crazy lady
https://onclickads.net/?zoneid=191098&pbk2=0148e29c3d2fe4d254e7e5d192214c3a6173049272710981 917&r=%2Foc%2Fhan%2Ftomb
[ link to this | view in thread ]