Quote Originally Posted by The Boz View Post

If it’s not illegal, is it a crime?

Sure some of us have some ethical beliefs against this. Just like retail theft in San Francisco, it’s not a crime under $950 but most of are not flying there to steal $949 worth of stuff. But plenty will when it’s not illegal as we are seeing.
I might have misunderstood what I read, but isn't the SF thing just that they are not prosecuting it? I can't imagine that it's perfectly legal to walk into a place and take whatever you want, to a point; it just seems like they aren't doing anything about it if one does.

The ethics of it are of no concern to me. In terms of legality, I should imagine that it would constitute a form of digital piracy, but even if it did, that is of no concern to me.

I made my post for three reasons:

1.) I thought it was a funny joke.

2.) Some people who are doing this (not meaning anyone in this thread, afaik) claim to have really strict ethical standards in other ways, so I find the hypocrisy amusing.

3.) I think simply not patronizing sites with paywalls is a more effective way to get them to remove paywalls than attempting to circumvent the paywalls. I'd be more interested in seeing the paywalls removed and replaced with an ad-based model.

If the New York Times, which absolutely blows, wants me to pay to read it...I guess they just don't want me to read it. It's tough enough to read that trash for free.

Honestly, I just wish Google would default to not listing sites that have paywalls when you do a search. It's extremely annoying when you're trying to research something.

That all said, I still won't use this. I'd just as soon only read stuff that the sites in question do not have paywall blocked.

Also, fuck ESPN.