Ask HN: Why is there HN “No Paywall Bot” to add non-paywall links?

2 pointsvkdelta2 comments

Hi Folks/Dang, I see in a lot of submissions from paywalled sites (WSJ, NYT, WsPost, etc.) and there will be someone posting an archive link which gets free karma or probably is stickied at times.

So the question: why does HN not a bot to automatically detect and add a non-paywalled link automatically? Is it to DMCA issue?

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Would a tool to do that not open HN up to DMCA or other circumvention/"hacking" liability?

"Posters gonna post, yo; what's a brother to do, bruh?" Is a defence in court, but "yes it's our software, your honour" is admitting complicity if not culpability.

Somebody put me on to this, last time we were having a grumble about paywalls:

https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/452024-hacker-news-anti-pa...

It doesn't get rid of them. But marks them, so you don't waste time clicking. And also provides a bypass link, if one exists.

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