They shouldn't send the content before they check if the user has paid to view it. Otherwise if they send the content to anyone who requests they can't complain when I choose what does and doesn't run on my computer.
Here's the thing - if blocking the loading of your protection script from a third-party server is all it takes to bypass your paywall, haven't you really, really screwed up?
Surely it should be the other way around - the paywall doesn't let you through unless the code is accessible and gets run?
I'm not going to try and claim people wouldn't be so stupid as to try to implement it this way...
If your paywall can be circumvented by not making a single http request then the problem lies in bad software engineering, not the law. What happens if I'm on a slow connection and that request fails? Do they get to send the FBI after me since I'm suddenly a criminal?
> If Admiral enables paywalls, then I kind of agree with Admiral.
I do and I don't. I think paywalls should be allowed to happen, but I don't think EasyList is circumventing paywalls. The companies that use EasyList might use it to circumvent a paywall, but what they do with a list of domains is up to them.
If I grabbed the EasyList repo, there's no way I could use it to circumvent a paywall. Nothing in that repo carries that functionality. It's not a matter of semantics or mincing words, either.
If Admiral enables paywalls, then I kind of agree with Admiral.
If companies want to put paywalls, circumventing them is kind of like jumping the gate to see a concert for free.
I always hit the back button, but publishers should be free to put up paywalls (no idea why they don't do it server-side, but that's another story).
So, I guess the article or at least the title are a little sensationalistic?