[pogue]

I can't believe Github processed this incredibly spurious DMCA request that didn't even detail what was being infringed beyond some vague "anti-circumvention technology". Plus it checks for archived and cached versions of an article so that somehow makes it circumvention?!

The author has already been kicked off Gitlab, so I'm not sure where else realistically they can go that wouldn't fold to copyright holders. Sourceforge? Launchpad? It's almost like it needs to be self hosted on IPFS or published on Bittorrent.

They haven't posted any updates on Twitter yet, but this is it: https://x.com/Magnolia1234B

[bubblethink]

The reason the author is having such a hard time is because they want to stay anonymous and there is no reliable way of self hosting something (outside the US) at a reasonable cost while staying anonymous. So, they keep hopping from one domain to another and get hit with DMCA everywhere. There is no winning move here.

[ls612]

Maybe the new Russian service will work for them. Although how hard is it really to host files in the <1MB range?

[bubblethink]

How will you host any files anonymously, no matter the size ? I don't mean bittorrent, ipfs, tor and the likes. Plain old website needs you to pay a hosting provider and a registry for a domain, both of which require your name and some form of payment. If you have the resources, you can create an LLC or find some other workarounds, but it's a hassle and not cheap.

[cykros]

There are a variety of services like Tor2Web that make accessing .onion sites on the plain internet trivial. For MOST .onion sites you may well not want to do this, but when all you want to do is hide the identity of the publisher, rather than worry about the privacy of the visitor, it's not really an impediment.

There is the matter of bandwidth -- this is where being pulled into other repositories and copied would be helpful. The code is small, but tor is notoriously slow.

[maeil]

IME for most TLDs and hosting providers there's no KYC to speak of. You can just fill in anything, and keep doing so. Unless I'm completely misremembering things, but I signed up to a hosting provider quite recently.

[bubblethink]

That works, to varying degrees, until the provider gets a letter from law enforcement. And unless you find some provider willing to take crypto, you are doxxing yourself when you pay.

[exe34]

yes it's better to keep a digital paper trail in a public permanent log.

[Youden]

There are services like https://njal.la/ which can be used anonymously, though they cost more.

[jocoda]

neocities?

[rustcleaner]

I think it's time for anonymously hosted .onion and .i2p git repositories, ideally with IPFS and Hyphanet backup in the event the black helicopters find the hosting systems.

[cykros]

Given the arrest of the Telegram CEO in France, I tend to agree. We've grown too complacent about trusting the public internet to host content that the censors will want to do something about. And the more gets done on tor, presumably, the more bandwidth the network will have, given the way it functions.

[o999]

Gitea hosted in Russia or Iran or similar jurisductions that would SHIFT+DELETE a DMCA request.

[pogue]

The author has a Russian mirror

https://gitflic.ru/project/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chro...

[o999]

Cool, thanks for sharing

[egamirorrim]

Really? It seems fair to me.

Like I love bypassing paywalls but the extension is clearly away of circumventing a system that's meant to make you pay for content... Isn't it?

[pogue]

But is that illegal? Or is that violation of copyright?

You're accessing content that can be viewed by Googlebot, or by disabling Javascript or some other simple browser tweaks.

[mindslight]

Who cares if it's a "violation of copyright" ? Copyright has become a set of overbearing corrupt laws bought and paid for by corporations. Sure there are some vestigial bits in there that an individual can kind of use if they do everything exactly right, but the overall dynamic is skewed very hard in favor of corporate control.

Apart from the blatant abuse of the legal system to computationally disenfranchise individuals via the DMCA et al, the main issue here is using centralized websites as watering hole for authoritative development/distribution. It would be understandable if Github were merely a mirror for exposure etc, but that should be the extent of it.

[nilsherzig]

I think the fact that they publish the site in a readable state first and adding the paywall after some time (after getting indexed / shared a bit) and services like archive.is just provide a copy of the original state makes it debatable if this is a circumvention.

If I publish a project on GitHub with a BSD license and after some time switch to a proprietary license the old code would still be licensed under BSD, right?

[ziml77]

The content published on the site in the open was never licensed to you though.

Lets say I make a movie and do a free screening of it in a public park to get people talking about it. That doesn't mean that it's ok for someone to record that screening and for people later to go looking for that recording rather than paying to watch the movie.

And being sent to a computer and stored in memory to render it to you doesn't change that either. That's necessary for the work to be displayed to you over the Internet and the law understands that (see: "What Color Are Your Bits?")

[nilsherzig]

I like your movie screening example.

Let's say you want to watch a movie about a certain topic. You ask a couple of friends if they can recommend one. They respond by telling you about this free movie screening at the local park - the movie is exactly about the thing you're interested in. You go to the park. Five minutes into the movie they start asking for money or you have to leave.

- I think your friends might not have recommended the movie if it wasn't free - you might not have gone to the movie if it wasn't free - nothing on the outside of the movie screening area indicated that they switched to a paid screening

I feel like there is a difference between a free screening to get some publicity and a simple bait and switch.