Paywalls, Libraries, and Free Media

fun stuff. So yeah, we're talking about kind of free access to information and uh, I don't know, like I really like libraries and I think a library based economy would be pretty cool. Yeah, you know, libraries for everything. Uh, food libraries you to take food, you know, deposit compost um with the decent system. Got the tool libraries so you can get you know, your angle grinders for taking

apart federal fences. You can get your you know, soldering irons for building your f GC nines, you know, all all of all of the basic stuff. And I guess book libraries are cool too, um, but we already have those and we're gonna be we're gonna be talking about them a little bit. Where are we having a discussion on paywalls, piracy, ar and uh and how access to information is actually good? Um, contrary to what many people

want to tell you. Yeah, I know. So. Yeah. As as the Internet became easier to access and information flow accelerated, there's been kind of questions and speculation on how physical book libraries will fit into our increasingly digital media landscape. Now, it's important to mention that the library is also one of the main ways for lower income people to access the internet, um, with their you know collection of free to use computers as well as you know, a decent

WiFi connection um. And many many libraries also are expanding their scope to include stuff like maker spaces as well as you know, their printers and standard kind of office supplies. So libraries are already kind of beyond just places to get printed media. But of course it is that is kind of their one that has been their main their

main premise. But you know, they've been they've been including stuff regarding e books, computer use, WiFi access, all the stuff has been a part of libraries for like the past years. Um. Yeah, like it's it's not. It's not. It's not, it's not. It's not a new thing. But I think when when people think of libraries, we just think of books are newspapers and stuff, but it is,

it is definitely more than that. Because yeah, obviously physical libraries are mostly known for printing materials, and because we'll be talking about pay walls and piracy are um and and fears that access to free content will negatively impact creator's ability to make such content, I figured let's start by talking about book libraries, since they're one of the

oldest examples of providing information for free. So based on kind of surveys and data collected from you from library users across the country, it would seem that libraries and loaned e books are actually a very powerful economic engine for the book business. Now, yes, libraries do have special deals to buy the books that they have in stock, sometimes they're donated. But even beyond that fact, like library users, like the fact that libraries exist for the users, either

of themselves increase book sales. Um, it's it's a it's it's pretty fun. So even as far back as there's been studies that show that libraries do increase book sales, now yes, this is this is this is a capitalist argument, but sometimes when arguing with let's you know, let's call them normis um, you can convince them to agree with a lot of kind of like anarchy leaning improvements to

the world by carefully using their own rhetoric against them. Right, this is this is like the same thing with the giving out free drugs and having safe drug in like intake sites, and giving your houses to homeless people, you know, all all the type of stuff. You know, all of those things are cheaper for the taxpayer than what we're currently doing with how we use emergencies, like how for

how we use emergency services spending. So yes, it's a capitalist argument, but you can still kind of you know, paint someone into a corner to to agree to like actual good improvements by using hey, this is actually cheaper, you know that that type of argument. So yeah, libraries, they do increase book sales, so that is mostly cool.

There is There was a study that shows around this is studying around showed that library users report purchasing books by an author that they were introduced to through the library system, which debunks the myth that were a library bias.

Books the publisher will lose future sales. Um. Instead, it confirms that the public library does not only incubate and support literacy as it's you know, generally understood in our culture, but it's also an active partner with the publishing industry for building up the book market and also including in that is the ever growing e book market, which I don't really like the books for reasons will kind of discuss in a bit for how I kind of have an aversion to the idea of like a digital ownership,

but the books are undeniably a very growing industry that also you know, does does support writers in a lot of ways. Um, But I think physical books are a lot cooler and more reliable. They are, as you can tell by my very nice physical book collection behind me, which you cannot listen to because this is a podcast and you can't listen with your ears unless you're on a lot of drugs, which good luck hearing the books behind me. People who listen to Yeah you too, but

yeah I'm not. I'm not talking about them. Um, this is an anti people who have jug induced citnothesia podcast. Now, lucky bastards going to get canceled. Oh sure, Yeah, that's what's gonna get me after all, Well bleep that I can't you said that, whoa Chris just said one of the just one of the most one of the most one of the most horrible authors that I would never

be caught dead reading any of their books. Um anyway. Ah, So, the idea that like piracy and free information will like tank creative industries, and you know, the idea that you know, just having access to free versions of media will hurt the ability to make more of the media is definitely proven wrong simply by the modern existence and popularity of nu may uh in the United States, because we would not have anime animal will not be what it is

today without piracy. Uh and uh because in the in the specifically like two thousand's late nineties, the piracy of anime became you know, big, a massive reason why it is the cultural jugg or not that it is today. Over half of anime related sales revenue comes from overseas,

not not Japan, comes from places like the States. Yeah, and you know, and it's also I think worth mentioning here, like it wasn't even just that they were like pirating the show, right, they were pirating they were getting a worse version of it, oh because like you know, relution, Yeah, terrible resolutions like I mean literally like VCRs that people had figured out how to like right like get subtitles on.

Like these versions of it are terrible. The translations are awful, and it's still just like absolutely like just catapulted anime from like an incredibly fringed thing for weirdos to a thing that is also still for weirdos. But it's still a nargely mainstream. Yeah, I'm gonna gonna take take this opportunity to plug our future episode dissecting the politics of attack on tited dot dot do. It's coming, folks, It's

strap in. So yes, what not would not be the thing is today without without without privacy And again but the majority of of sales revenue comes from not Japan. So yeah, that's that's a pretty pretty pretty clear. So the discovery of new books and authors through the library system um is definitely searching right now, actually specifically due to e books and audiobooks being available online anytime well

like via library means. So there's like you know, there's there's ways you can access you can quote unquote borrow these types of things via via the library systems. Despite them being like digital media, which again I prefer physical,

but that's that's something we'll talk about later. So even even while visits to libraries and like physical bookstores, A pommeted during COVID nineteen digital library usage sword which is you know that that that that that that tracks um more than four hundred and thirty million type were borrowed from the overdrive library platform alone, and it would you know, you could you could assume that this would cause a drop in the purchasing of books during the same period,

but the opposite is true. Actually, the overall purchasing of books also rose in including an eight percent lift in these sales of print books, despite a lot of people being out of jobs, out of work. You know that turns out people are boards They're going to spend money on books because books are cool, and even when they have access to library stuff, they still buy books. Yep, it's a it's a it's a simple truth that the

library patrons are usually also book buyers. It's it's me I am literally surrounded by books on all sides that they have me surrounded. I have no escape. And this is what happens when you grow up in a library I mean I also grew up in a library. Mean I was, I was homeschooled. I grew up time a library. To my to, to my left, I have books on urban exploration and Lemony Snicket. My right, I have books on alchemy. Behind me, I have books which I should

I'll not name um. And behind me I have a massive techo comic books of yeah, I have usually surrounded by books. It's the books are great and you you have them unless they burn up. You're gonna have them, no matter whether the Internet goes out, whether whether an online provider shuts down, You're gonna You're gonna have physical books. They are they are, they are pretty, they're pretty cool.

So and libraries and like, the library system offers a really great way to discover new books, new series, new genres, or new authors before deciding whether to permanently purchase those titles. So it's it's this isn't just like an assumption used to hype up the idea of a library. This has been proven by lots of studies like the why I mentioned a few minutes ago from two US and eleven M. Also, there was the Panorama Projects Immersive Media and Books Consumer

Survey which is a way too long. The title real Mouthful, which found that one third of responders a book that they discovered through the library. So it turns out you you discover a book, you turn it and you're like, hey, that book is actually pretty good. All this by a copy myself. I did that. I still do that all the time. It's ah, yeah, it's it's it's it's it's a thing. So own all Star Wars books. This is why I have a beautiful copy of Splinter in the

Mind's Eye, which I am very curious to see. Who will get that joke. I was try I was trying to think of the worst Star worst book that I have, and then you said that, I'm like, I can't. I think I actually have that. Well, there I go, there's there's two. There's two for you. Uh yeah. So in our kind of in our like technology driven world of like you know, wanting things very quickly, you know, instant

instant gratification. UM, library users are no different. Right, They still have that instant gratification drive and many times they will want a specific book and they'll be happy to pay for it instead of waiting for at the library. Right, you can put a book on hold, await a month, or you can buy it for ten bucks. And oftentimes people will buy the book because we want things quickly.

It's According to the same Panorama Project immers of the Media and Books consumer survey, about of respondents said that they just bought books rather than waiting for them if they are unavailable from from the library at the time. So and it's it's it's a great system like libraries are also frequently used just as like a really good

browsing tool. Um. You know, if you're unsure of what you want to read next, you can go to the library, look at stuff and be like, Okay, this is what I'm interested in, and then purchase it online or in person at a later date. And it's not just it's not not not not just physical books. Library users are also are also driving the purchase e books and physical books um and audio books. Audio books have been actually

very big at library. I used to listen to a lot of audio books actually from the library because I would get c d s back when those great for road trips, back in the old days when you had a c D I say with my gen z uh um outlook yes, uh c d S classic classic. According to the Audio Publishers Association, also known as the a P A just acronym, daily audio consumption has grown seventy one sin, which is not surprising me. Like there's there's there's stuff like Audible and you know, big big platforms

that are are making high quality audiobook content. Uh, but that's that's that's a lot in alone. Audiobook revenue grew by sevent even though even though the number of people who were commuting plummeted, right because a lot of people listen to audiobooks while like driving to work. So the number of you know, of commuting dropped in because there was this plague. I'm not sure if you've heard about that, but they still hasn't, so you know that's true. They're

pretending it's not real. But if yeah, if if if if you look at most if you look at you know, the the audiobook revenue, it grew despite their being much less much less um much less work commuting. And that was the eighth straight year of double of double digit growth in the audiobook revenue sector. And it aligns with other kind of digital library usage statistics. So yeah, like libraries and booksellers will they work in tandem. They they

library's drive interest for content both physical and digital. You know, rising tide races, all all of those floaty things on the water, um as the saying goes are that's a piracy joke, everybody. Yeah, over Drive has found that when a reader uses one or more digital library apps like a Libby I've never heard of until I had to research in this podcast. But once you if you use more than one one or more digital digital library apps you're sixty, you are more likely to increase your book

consumption year over year versus people who do not. So yeah, it turns out when you read more books, you want to read more books because it's fun. It's fun. So instead of instead of reading a book, I'm going to give our audio listeners an opportunity right now to listen to this carefully curated selection of ads unless they're by like I don't know, the National Guard or whatever. So here you go. Here's here's some ads, and we are back. What a lovely, lovely collection of audio treats to tickle

your ears. Okay you're God speaking speaking of tickling your ears Sonic the Hedgehog. So a lot of a lot out of the reasons why we're gonna so this this, this will make sense, I promise. Um, we're about to talk about fly genetics for SSH Sonic Hedgehog. We're talking about how like when people are allowed to like do piracy and allowed to do like their own things with media, it actually boosts the overall kind of like the presence

of the franchise. Right, So, Sonic the Hedgehog would not be a current cultural steak if it wasn't for fan culture and the use of like fan games and fan media related to Sonic. So the same thing was like anime, right, Um, you know Sonic Sonic fan games which were allowed to be existed for years, which they get encouraged, are the only reason why there's a good Sonic games right now, like Sonic Mania, which were just they just hired people

who made fan games. Um, the person who redesigned Sonic the Hedgehog for the movie what used to make Sonic fan comics and then got hired to make the actual official Sonic comics. Then they got hired to fix them. They got hired to fix the horrible movie design. So yeah, said, it has been very good about like not being horrible

about like copyright stuff and trademark stuff. They've like really encouraged it because it turns out when you when you yourself don't make good games, you need to rely on fans to actually make the good games so we get So that's where you get beautiful creations like the Sonic Dreams Collection, which is a heartwarming, nostalgic look at Sonic through the Ages um and other great games like Sonic Mania which, so you can compare this to like a

Nintendo who unfortunately makes good games um, but also hates when fans make games or do like emulation or any like ports. They will clamp down on that so fast. If you ever emulate a Nintendo game, you know, watch watch your back, there will be there will be men in black suits following you around, just like do you understanding of like how far this goes? Right? So super Smash pros and bile. This game is like maybe older

than Garrison. It is, I think I actually don't know what that trude, but yeah, literally old and Garrison, right, this game has a still still to this day, Like copies of this game are extremely expensive because there's an enormous professional scene around it. Uh. Nintendo like basically was working to actively smash them because they were they were playing a Yeah, yeah, because they because they were playing on like an emulated like they're playing an emulated version

of it for the tournaments because it emulated software. Yeah yeah. And Nintendo again, who is literally getting like millions of views of completely free good publicity, was like, no, we hate you, Nintendo will when people use they're they're like their their content and stuff in ways that are not not not official. And because they make decent games, they can actually get away with that. Um Sega, that's not make decent games that are questioning, so they have to

rely on fans doing that. But yeah, that's the reason why Sonic is still a thing, just because fans have have been able to you know, through through piracy, through emulation, through creating, through ucing like Sonic code to code their own games all staffs. Is the reason why that's still like a cultural staple that is releasing a new movie next month. But I'm very excited about very excited about Sonic the head shog too. It's gonna be, It's gonna be.

I'm thinking, I'm thinking it could we could finally clamp down on the video game Oscar this time. I feel it. Well, that's that's look this is this this, this is just because Ace Attorney got robbed. Okay, createst movie of all time? That is That is my little side bit about about

about about sega. Um. Oh yeah, I should also briefly mentioned that Nintendo just like put literally put a guy in prison for helping for helping jailbrate consoles like put put a man in prison for this for modifying people's software and a game console. I guess the other thing I'll talk about is, like, I mean, part of the reason why I really don't like digital ordership of media is because you don't actually own the thing. You own a license to use the content as long as the

online services active. So even if you buy a game on you know, the Nintendo Switch store, you're not actually buying the game. You're buying a license to use the game.

But the same thing for whether you're buying media on like Amazon Prime, right, it's it's it's it's the same thing if you're if you're buying digital copy of it, it's a license to use it, so you can take you know, what Nintendo has done a few years ago is they shut down the u we Shop channel, which means if you bought a game and it wasn't creanty downloaded.

You can now you've just it's gone. You just cannot you cannot play it anymore because they just completely took service down, so you don't actually you're not you're not actually buying the thing. You're just buying a license to use the thing. Now. They did the same thing a few months ago for the w U Shop channel and the three D S channel. So yeah, rip ripped to that. If you if you, if you have, if you bought games on there that we're not currently running, then you

cannot get them anymore. They're just gone, like you can, they're just lost, lost of time. Well and you know, and again if if you if you modified the software the game console that you like nominally own in order to play the games that you bought and paid for, they will throw you in prison. Nintendo will send men in suits to come and get you and throw you in the prison. Yeah. Who he it's a it's a Mario. It's a Mario joke, everybody. Um, yes, So, I mean

it's the same thing with like subscription services. Like obviously, if you have a subscription service, you don't own the content you're watching. You are just getting a permission to use it from a certain amount of time. So this is obviously this is this is more obvious. Right, you don't owe what's on Netflix. You just are able to

watch what Netflix has legal rights to show. But you even see this thing extended to like cars like Toyota was was trying out a program and that this may even it may even still be active for some cars where you need a subscription service to use the key fob on your cars like automatic like like door locking like fob, like you need a subscription to use that service of it. Just like why like if you it's it's just turning everything, it's turning everything into us to

us like a subscription service. It's horrible, like everything is becoming a new subscription service, a new a new thing to get your monthly payments for. It's it's it's awful, like you don't actually buy things anymore. It's just a subscription services and digital copies. It's not nothing is nothing

is actually the thing anymore? Yeah, it's it's it's all just rent extraction and the entire economy instead of you know, having a thing, they figured out way, what if we just distract rent and then you also don't own it. The same thing was like Tesla cars you have to like buy buy you know, upgrades via software that are already built in and like subscribe to keep your car

running nicely. Like what it's not like No, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna go on a very small gamer rent here because this is a this is a thing a lot a lot of the worst practices for this rigidated gaming and this this was like, this was a big fight back in like the early thousand tents about okay, if you buy a game, right, do you own everything

on the game? And the huge to fight about you know, they have these like delayed DLC, like they have these new content packages that would be on the disc right that you've bought, but you can't access it unless you pay the money. And this was like a fight and some gamers were like, you know, they're tried to fight it, right,

but most gamers didn't care. And then they became the weaponized shock troops are the far right instead of you know, dealing with this ship and now literally everything has fucking day and day one DLC on it that you buy the thing, you don't even get all you have to you have to buy the if you have if you buy the season pass to get all the content in the future, it's like you have to buy the season

pass for your car to work properly. Yeah, so this is just how it started with Star started with the season pass for a sixty for a sixty dollar game to then buy season pass to get more of the game, and now it's for your So yeah, that's fun. It's it's not it's it's kind of sucks. But yeah, a lot of these, a lot of these like play to win practices, these like free models shuch then like which

lead into a subscription service based model. Um have did da have definitely started in online gaming, and it's yeah, it's it's really frustrating because as we'll talk about here in a bit, like the Sega model is like better, Like it turns out when you encourage your fans to play around with the stuff, it only helps your property. Like that's the reason why they there's still Sonic March available now and it's not like a dead franchise. It's

because they like because they allowed that to happen. So it's actually really cool when we're allowed to access free information and play with it how we want to instead of like having this weird strict copyright like rules for not allowing certain usage of certain things. Like it's it's it's not. It's not great when you're restricting like emulation, restricting fan games, restricting the access to information. It's not.

It's not it's it's not. It's not fun. But yeah, this is kind of it's kind of place into why I am very skeptical of digital media, which is why I start started collecting Blue Rays and all of all the things I like, because I bottomed things that Amazon Prime which are now no longer available on Amazon Prime, and that sucks, so like why do that instead just

buy your physical copy? Yeah, well, the thing is like it didn't and it's so true to some extent, like if if you buy physical copies, like it didn't used to be like this, like Blue Rays used to it to some extent, still dubious most times. Yeah, but like like if you buy the physical copy of it, they will give you weight code that lets you use the

online version a digital download code. Yeah. Yeah, and you know that's a much better way of the thing working than uh, instead of you know, you don't buying it, you don't have the physical product and also they can take it away from you. Yeah, it's I'll circle back to this idea towards the end, but I kind of want to. I want I want to a little bit segue to like the idea of the same type of like paywalling, subscription service issues, and like the restriction of

information regarding online news. So, you know, there's a lot of people, whether they be like reporters, editors, authors, or just to annoy people online. Um, but there's a decent collection of people that perpetuate the notion that readers or consumers are actually responsible for the dire straits of the media industry. But the problem with journalism and many other media you know industries. But the problem isn't that people

aren't paying for news. The problem is that newspapers and outlets are being decimated and dismantled by hedge funds, capital investment firms, venture capitalists, and tech companies in search of profit. Um. You can look at how Facebook tricked a whole bunch of companies and just switching over to video content, and then a whole bunch of companies had to fire tons

of people because there was a lie. You can look at how Sinclair broadcasting dominates local news channels and websites um, and how well established local papers are struggling while big companies buy up all the competition. So it's it's it's especially the venture capitalist thing is actually a really uh is a really interesting idea that has been documented decently well. And in the bed, I'll teach you how to bypass

uh newspaper headlines via different methods. But there's this actually a good article in the Washington Post um that is titled as a secretive hedge fund gets its newspapers, journalists are fighting back. It kind of just details all of the different hedge funds, adventure capitalists firms instead of like just totally destroyed so many local papers throughout the entire country.

It's actually kind of surprising once you learn how many of these papers are just getting destroyed by like just a few, like just like a few hedge funds are just doing all this damage, and it's it's like, yeah, I mean, this is why the current like journalism industry kind of sucks right now, is because of these types of practices. And I mean, like no one likes it, like no one's happy with it, Like everyone hates journalism

journalists hate journalism. People who read journalism hates journalism like activists hate journalism, like everyone's mad at it um. And yeah, you can look at these these hedge funds and venture cap the lists who are just like making it such

an impossible industry. Uh. And then you know how you have like you have internet sites and culture sites like Vice, BuzzFeed and Cracked who had to frequently lay off large swaths of their editorial and writing teams, whether for like union reasons or because the company made faild attempts to chase some big tech companies or media giants you know, proposed money like in the Facebook switching over to video content kind of debacle that happened a few years ago.

And like it's it's it's it's understandable why these writers, artists, the journalists are frustrated because, yeah, the work is hard and the salaries are low. Well, the work should be hard, and some people kind of slack off, but you know, for the good journalism is more is challenging, and salaries

typically aren't great. But even if audience monetary support were the solution to making creative and writing industries more profitable, again, the kind of anti piracy folks would still be missing A fundamental point is that kind of the of the pro paywall people want you to get it through your head that journalism is just like other types of things you buy, whether it be food, you know, alcohol or entertainment, um saying you know all these things. You know, Netflix

isn't free. You know, Coca Cola isn't free. Right, This isn't journalism's fault. It's just how the world works. You have to buy it to use it it. You know, it costs money to make you have to buy it to use it. It's just it's it's it's like, it's dumb to think otherwise. This is kind of their framework.

But I beg to differ because enjoying art and worthwhile journalism, I think should always have the option of being free, because when information is in the public interest, it should just always be available to everybody, whether or not you've already used up your three free articles. Like this is really important, especially now when there's you know, the whole the whole war thing happening and finding like paywall articles

about it is incredibly frustrating. Uh. And yeah, I mean there was even when the there was a right wing right ring extremist who opened fire and killed someone at a Portland's uh black Lives Matter protests a few weeks ago. Uh that that is you know, still definitely impacting the city because it was it's it's still very recent. But a lot of the news coverage, first of all, it

wasn't great. Uh. There was a whole bunch of news coverage was like was parroting the police lies and framing the framing the attackers like an innocent homeowner who was defending himself. It was pretty gross. But even even when the news articles started to like correct their previous agree with errors, um, almost all of it was pay walled, like all like all, like a whole bunch of stuff

was pay welled about it. And that's incredibly frustrating because this is like, you know, when information is in the public interest, it should be free to access. Like that's just there's like a good moral thing like uh and even um, and we've seen it. We've seen this before.

Back in when the plague was a new thing, news organizations across the country started to lift pay walls to share coverage of the coronavirus pandemic um, which was great and you know, you can you can obviously see that once that changed over, a lot of people who we're making this happen behind the scenes probably hoped that which just convince people to become paying customers. But it was still like, that's still the way things should be is to have have the option of it being free and

then having the option to donate. And this actually seems to be kind of the trend. Uh. The University of Texas at Austin surveyed about like a thousand Chicago residents about their local news consumption, and they found that respondents were more willing to give a ten dollar donation to support a free news site than pay ten dollars for a subscription to access premium news content. So yeah, like that's and that I definitely share that same like, uh,

that same idea. I will weigh sooner donate money to a newspaper that I enjoy that is also free, that I will pay ten dollars a month to read subscription service based news. It's a it's because it turns out when you like this, this applies to all types of media, but like when you enjoy media, you want to support its creators, whether that be anime, whether that be sonic the fucking headgehog, whether that be whether that be news or books. Right, if you like something, you're gonna buy it, Right.

I gotta introduced to te Lemony stikets books to be the library, and now I bought lots because I wanted to. I wanted to buy the books from the person that I like. Yeah, and there are entire like industries and they literally just work on this person list. This is

why free to play games work. Yeah, exactly. There there's another conversation with free to play games here about like addiction and gambling and manipulation about that, but like that that's you know, like setting that aside for a second. It's like, yeah, these things if if if people didn't want, if didn't spend money on things they like, free to

pay games would not work like fundamentally as a model. Yeah, No, definitely definitely the idea of like, yeah, you get someone starts to awaying the service, then they start paying for it, whether it be buying useless you know, skin for whatever third person shooter you have, or that be you know, buying books or copies of of the film or like anime, body pillows, whatever, like you do you want to financially support the things that you enjoy. This is just a

part of this is what humans do. So yeah, maybe more stuff should be have the option of being free. Uh, that definitely my take on it. Let's let's have a quick let's have a bit of a speaking of free content, this podcast is brought to you by these lovely sponsors, so you can listen for free while just skipping the ads.

So good for you. We're back and now we're gonna talk about different ways of bypassing pay walls, specifically for online news, because paywalls frustrate me and as someone who likes must around with kind of computer e stuff, there's definitely a long list of ways to buy pass paywalls, depending on what types of paywalls we are talking about. So types of pay walls there are. There are typically two general types of pay walls. There's hard pay walls

and soft pay walls. Um, hard pay walls require payment up front, so usually some some form of subscription fee before accessing any content. Websites with hard pay walls. Maybe we'll act you lead like a tiny snippet of the article, but you need access, you need you need to pay subscription to access the full, The full content. Soft pay walls are are are typically allow you to read a number of articles before you need to buy buy a subscription. So it's there's you have a set number of articles

that you can read for a fixed period or session. Um, there's you know, a lot of a lot of a lot of websites operate like this. Most of New York Times operates like this. A lot of a lot of a lot of news sites have a soft paywall model, which is great because they're typically a little bit easier to bypass the first first method. This works some of the time. It depends on how the website is constructed, but you can try to stop the loading page before

it fully loads. Uh so generally a quick technique. It's effective on several different types of web pages. UH. You have to stop your browser from fully loading the webpage as soon as your breaser displays the text element of the paywell to content. So you you know, enter a page U R L into the search bar, press enter, and then press the X icon or the escape key as soon as you see some of the text on

screen before a paywall window pops up. UM. A major limitation of this is that stopping the website may not load all content elements, so it mainly render like a portion of the text, or it may like miss out on like files like images, animations or videos. Um. And it also depends on the order of which the website loads the page elements. So for example, if the website loads to pay Well first, then this check won't be successful. Also, you gotta have to be kind of pretty fast in

order to make this one work. Typically this isn't the first way I do it, because there's generally generally easier ways.

But if you can do this, then cool. It's definitely it's definitely a fast one if you can't get it to succeed for soft paywall, so like I, I will say the stopping the browser from loading is actually successful at some hard paywall sites because if they do like load a portion of the text to read as like a stippet, sometimes it will actually load the entire text, but then just block it off with a separate window. So sometimes with a hard paywall you can actually stop

it via this method. So that's always fun. Um. But second method, generally more for soft paywalls, is for is to delete your pages cookies. So you know websites store cookies to track your browser UM activities, including how much content you back tested. So blog publishers, news newspaper sites can track the number of fage articles you've read using

the cookies stored on your browser. If you hit the limit for for non subscribers, if like the limit of articles allotted, then you can delete the website cookies to refresh the to refresh that counter and it will possibly reset the limit of articles UM. You can go to the privacy or security section of your web browsers, like the option that allows you to check the cookies and site for all data, and then search for the website that you're looking for in the in the cookie management

page and then click remove all. You can do this on like Firefox, Chrome, Microsoft Edge if you want to use that for some reason. UM Safari. Yeah, but this trick may not work very well on hard pay walls because it that's that they don't really use cookies for the same purpose. And also you'll have to you know, do if you're doing that. If you're doing this for soft pay walls, you have to do it every time

you you reach the limit UM. And if this won't work if the website is using other kind of more advanced tools to track your activity like I p logs, right, So if it's tracking your AP data instead of your cookies, then this probably won't work. So this one's this one.

I mean you you should clear cookies every once in a while anyway, just like generally a good practice, But to do this all the time, it's kind of a kind of a bit of work, especially because the next method is typically easier and does the same thing, which is just reading articles inside a private or incognito mode or in the tour browser. Um So, as as as as explained earlier, not all paywalls are about the same.

If you know, if a website uses a soft paywall, you should be able to read a subscription based content through incongnito or private browsing because it'll check the it'll it'll check the website into thinking you're a brand new visitor, granting you access to the content before it had before it racks up enough of views to uh to throw

up the paywall window. So this is this is a lot easier than just manually to leading the companies every single time, because yeah, most web browsers do not transmit pre existing cookies onto an incognito or private mode browser mode, so it doesn't switch those back over. And then although the website will deposit new cookies on your browser during private browsing sessions, they will be removed as soon as

you close the window. Uh. One bummer is that some news pages are getting wise and actually are programming their websites to be able to be able to detect if they're opened in a private or browsing mode or even on tour um and they just like won't open. They'll they'll say, sorry, you have to. We We've detected that you're using this in private browsing mode to view this content.

Boot up a regular browser, which which really sucks for the tour users because a lot of people are like, hey, yeah, I'm in China, I'm trying to get past the Great Firewall and fuck you eat ship. You should have somehow paid a subscription service to us to see information on this site that is literally illegal here. Like it's great. It's really bad for people who are like actually facing government censorship who need to use tour to view content. So yeah, that that is Uh, it's what we call

a major bummer. Uh, a major sucks. A made your Oh no, capitalism did a whoopsie. Um yeah, but yeah, this is definitely this is one of the modes I do most often. It's like I can typically get get a lot of sites to be able to view through incong unit or private or private browsing. But again it does depend on what the site is ah is built to do. But bar far my favorite method. Oh yes,

I'll mention. Another one that I don't really use very often is the paywall or removal extensions for for your browser, which is like third party browser extensions which try to automatically bypass paywalls. These are really hit and miss, um and it's they're also a really great way to get nice, fancy malware onto your computer. UM, So I would I

typically steer clear of this. But there there is allegedly a browser extension called bypass paywalls for Chrome and Firefox that allegedly has been found to be effective, um that allows you to read the subscription based articles on hundreds of publications like New York Times, Wired, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post. Um. It is, it is. It is free, but you have to manually load it onto your browser. And just typically I'm not a big fan of browser

extensions in the first place. So I kind of steer clear of these, but some some some people, some people swear by them, so maybe maybe they can work. They're they're they're not only my thing, but my favorite method

is archive websites, uh, specifically archived dot is. So there are internet archiving tools that preserve copies of webpages and social media posts for reference purposes, and you can use these tools to access pabled content and read subscription based news articles for free, including a lot of hard paywalled pages. Archive dot i s or archive dot is is my favorite one. Um. Also it's it functions under archive dot today. Uh just it just it depends on what surfers they're

running at the moment. Of course, there's also the classic and pretty reliable archived dot org, which has a nice calendar feature. But it's definitely good to check both of these because sometimes article be archived on archived dot is really easily, and it won't be are available on archived dot org. Sometimes it will be on archive dot org and not Archive's currently the one that's currently live. I think it's not. pH It automatically switches usually I could.

I usually just type in our cave dot is um and it switches me over automatically. But yes, there is, there is, there is, there is a few of them. Yeah, yeah, you are right correct. It does automatically revert to archive dot phr at the moment. So yeah, but these these are the ones I use the most because people who have access to hard paywalled content will often archives the hard paywalled stuff so it's available to people without the paywall.

This this this can include the screenshot mode for archive dot is and the regular archival method for archive dot org. But both these are great, um and they're also really good for looking at past versions of the articles, so you can look to see what how the articles have changed over time, and so is your great just research tools.

And archive dot is is very easy to even upload stuff yourself, even if you don't have um the paywalls, Like even if you're blocked off from reading the whole thing, you can try to submit it to our chave dot is and there's a good chance and actually grab an unpaywalled version of it because because of how because of how the site works. So let's go to archive dot pH r or or archive dot is, enter the web page u r L that you're wanting to access in

the designated dialect box at the bottom. It's like to save, it'll go through a little process, um, and then then you will then you'll be able to select the screenshop mode or the webpage mode and be able to see what type of thing in archives. It's pretty it's pretty cool. Um. It's. The last thing I'll mention is outline dot com and twelve foot Ladder. These are web based tools, but not

specifically archival sites. They're generally used to just get to the text of an article it would via like web page nonsense and bypassing paywall stuff. Unfortunately, websites have also gotten wise to this, so stuff like New York Times and Wall Street Journal have figured out a way to get to these sites blocked so you cannot use outline dot com or twelve foo Ladder on them, but they still work on stuff like The Washington Post, so it

always depends. But I definitely generally will prefer the archive dot is and archive dot org method to viewing any kind of paybold content. Um. Yeah, and that's kind of my I mean, I'm not now I'm not going to explain how to do like regular piracy on the podcast because I don't have enough time, but like it's easy. Yeah, there are there are lots of people who will tell you. I mean like Hiss Cartoon is like a very popular website, Like you don't even need to, like you don't even

have to like properly tour and stuff anymore. There is like so much piraated media of help. Yeah, and it's like okay, so like you've got to be a little bit careful when your parting stuff because sondsmes you can get copyright strike, but if you stream it, they don't copy strike you for that. So yeah. Yeah. The other thing I will plug is a PLEX, which is a kind of an online movie host service like Netflix, except

you upload all of the content to it. So let's say you buy Blue Rays, it comes it comes with the digital download code, So now you can upload the digital copy into Plex and watch that wherever you want, as long as you're signed into to the Plex account and you actually own the stuff on the service. So as long as the services online, you can use it

because you actually own the stuff on it. Um that includes if you have if you have pirated versions of movies downloaded, you can upload this versions onto Plex then then delete the actual hard copies of it on your hard drive, then just watch the ones in PLEX and you're totally fine. So PLEX is great for having like ease of access because right sometimes I don't want to sort through my Blu ray discs and make sure that I have a Blu ray player with me so to

watch my stuff. So using PLEX is a great wet method to keep your stuff that you actually own accessible online to watch it as long as you sign into a web browser. Um. And the last thing I'll plug is library submission form. So if you really want media and you don't wanna pay for it and you don't want to like pirate necessarily, you can get libraries to buy stuff. Um. I did this all the time when I was younger. I I found out that you can submit items for purchase via via via the library on

the online forum, and I submitted so many comic books. Uh, most of the comic books, I would say, I'm not like a good majority of the comic books in the Molton County Library system are because of me. Every every Wednesday, when a new trade paperback would be released, I would upload it to the library submission form and they would buy it. Uh, and not just one coffee. They would

buy like twelve copies. So there's so many Batman comics in the in the in the moltonmo Comney system because I would studiously upload upload all that stuff so that I didn't need to pay for comics. I could just

get them from the from the library. So definitely look into library submissions to kind of grow what your library has in stock, and then also looking to see what other things your library is doing, because I know more libraries are looking into building like maker spaces and like tool libraries to um have access to things that are not just like books, you know, power tools, and then you know how to access to even cool stuff like

stuff like vacuum formers and like three three printers, laser cutters. All these things are kind of growing. So look into what your library is doing because oftentimes libraries have some pretty cool stuff. Um. So yeah, this is my little little bit on why I don't like paywalls, why I think content should be free because it actually helps creators in the long run any anyway, And how to get past news articles that don't want you to read them

without paying too much money yep. And remember, folks, if Japan invaded your country, pirrating anime as reparations. If you're mad about this tweet, find me on Twitter and I write, okay, yeah, make sure your tweet and I right, okay if you have complaints about that take So yeah, that is that is my little my my little bit talking about piracy are and uh and yeah, I mean morest we should,

we should, we should. I think it's I've always had I've always hold this opinion that I think we can all learn a lot of lessons from Sonic the Hedgehog um. And I think one of the greatest ones is that it turns out when you make stuff available to use, uh for free and allow emulation, people like people like, people like the stuff, more people enjoy it, and it

will actually support official uses of it as well. So more stuff for free, more more library based economies, and having having gold rings, having an enormous number of gold rings makes you nearly invincible. That that is this is this is also true. I mean the multiple franchises exist with that exact premise. Um. Yeah, so it turns out when you have more, more libraries, more rings, people are happier. Yep, that's the episode