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posted by
cmn32480
on Sunday May 21 2017, @07:21AM
from the trying-to-get-paid-for-what-they-do dept.
from the trying-to-get-paid-for-what-they-do dept.
The Boston Globe website is closing off a hole in its paywall by preventing visitors who aren't logged in from reading articles in a browser's private mode.
"You're using a browser set to private or incognito mode" is the message given to BostonGlobe.com visitors who click on articles in private mode. "To continue reading articles in this mode, please log in to your Globe account." People who aren't already Globe subscribers are urged to subscribe.
Like other news sites, the Globe limits the number of articles people can read without a subscription. Until the recent change, Globe website visitors could read more articles for free by switching to private or incognito mode.
Source: ArsTechnica
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BostonGlobe.Com Disables Articles When Your Browser's in Private Mode
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Life is not for everyone.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday May 21 2017, @02:53PM (1 child)
I don't know if this is a viable business model going forward, but I think the efficacy of DRM can vary significantly depending on the application.
DRM doesn't work well in preventing stuff like music or movie piracy, because these are sort of "durable goods" that people will want to access over extended periods of time. If it takes days or weeks or even months for someone to bother to make a hacked copy and upload to a torrent site or whatever, there may still be an audience interested in downloading it. If you can't find it one week, try again next week or find a link on a different site.
News? Not so much. Tomorrow, nobody cares much about reading 90% of today's headlines. So, sharing of content has to be fast and predictable to be an effective alternate news source for the DRM content. But if it's too predictable, it's easier to target and shut down or slam with notices that delink it from search engines and make it "invisible."
Couple that with the fact that the majority of news in even a paper like the Boston Globe can be found elsewhere. Lots of AP/Reuters stories, etc., and even the ones that are written by Globe reporters that cover national/international events are likely to be told elsewhere. The main "unique" content is local news. So not only do you need to set up a dependable fast pirate site as a mirror, but which magically isn't shut down or made invisible to search engines -- you also need someone out of a few million people in the Boston region to actually care enough to do this and maintain it.
It all sounds like too much trouble, compared to other places where DRM is ineffective.
And yes, people can share news stories with friends. High-profile news feature stories from specific news outlets often end up with online mirrors of those particular stories. But the Globe isn't interested in 100% effectiveness or with banning the casual reader from getting free content. (You already get X stories per month free or whatever.) They're trying to get dedicated local readers to pay for a subscription.
I don't know that it will work as an effective strategy now, and I can't imagine this will be what the news business looks like in 20 years or whatever. But for the immediate future, any "DRM" attempt doesn't need to be 100% effective or handle every edge case. It just needs to make it hard enough or at least obscure enough to circumvent that a significant number of people will still pay for the service.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @04:28PM
DRM on news articles has got to be the wet dream of every propagandist. You can spread whatever fake news you want, and by the time reality comes knocking, you can be sure no single trace of your fabrications remains.