Solved Newspaper paywall question

[450125]

(Apologizing in advance for the way the Buffalo News links below exploded into near-paragraph length!)

I read a lot of newspapers online. Some I subscribe to, some I just read occasionally using the limited free articles they provide.

For the latter, I've generally used Firefox's "private browsing" (incognito) mode. End a browsing session, and the page counts reset to zero.

This month, I was reading The Buffalo News s No. 1 news source, providing in-depth, up to the minute news. The Buffalo News brings you breaking news and the latest in local news, sports, business, politics, opinion and entertainment from around Buffalo and Western New York. and noticed a declining article count appearing, and then after five articles I think, I got a message saying I'd reached my limit and would have to subscribe, or wait for a new week for more free articles.

I quit the browser and tried again and immediately got the "limit reached" message.

Then I went to Internet Explorer, which I almost never use, and immediately got "limit reached."

So my first question is how is a web site keeping track of my count of articles read, that is browser-independent?

Doing some reading, I found that if I turned off javascript, this disabled the paywall intercept.

So second question is, is there a way in FF to have js turned off for some sites but not all?

Finally, is there a way to (say, with Adblock) block the paywall intercept?

Believe it or not, the part I am most curious about is how The Buffalo News s No. 1 news source, providing in-depth, up to the minute news. The Buffalo News brings you breaking news and the latest in local news, sports, business, politics, opinion and entertainment from around Buffalo and Western New York. tracks my usage without cookies. New York Times used to be that way when they first went to a paywall, but they're not any more. Really curious how it's done.

 

[z3r010]

You should buy a subscription if you want to view the content behind the paywall, you will get no help here to steal from the publisher.

 

[mrjimphelps]

You should buy a subscription if you want to view the content behind the paywall, you will get no help here to steal from the publisher.

It looks kind of funny when you say that, yet your avatar is of the master criminal in Despicable Me!

(Just kidding, nothing more.)

 

[450125]

You should buy a subscription if you want to view the content behind the paywall, you will get no help here to steal from the publisher.

I do understand. Just in the interest of "clearing my name," I had no blatantly nefarious intent. I really was just curious, from a technical standpoint, of how a site could monitor visits I've made to it, such that a browser I never use (Internet Explorer) would "know" I'd hit my page limit view in Firefox.

 

[z3r010]

I wouldn't allow discussion of stealing cars either just so people would understand it from a technical standpoint.

 

[badcrc]

'how a site could monitor visits I've made to it ... would "know" I'd hit my page limit view in Firefox'

They log your IP - you could be on a different pc, but they'd know it was you.