#paywalling — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #paywalling, aggregated by home.social.
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This question must have been asked before, but anyway: if publishers must ask people to pay for their articles (which I believe they have every right to do), why do most of them rely on subscription models only? I would have expected digital publication to allow for more fine-tuned distribution than issues of printed magazines, not less!
#paywalling #paywall -
#Wired is dropping #paywalls for #FOIA-based reporting. Others should follow
They're called #publicrecords for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will *stop #paywalling* articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with https://freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.
https://freedom.press/issues/wired-is-dropping-paywalls-for-foia-based-reporting-others-should-follow/ -
Title: Paywalling and Other Shady Marketing Techniques
Today, companies find excuses to grab more money from consumers, and this money-grab scams are getting more outrageous by the day.
Paywalling is a predominant technique used by companies to force people to upgrade their subscription and/or pay them more money to get access to basic stuff. It’s really possible for them to offer said products/features for no additional charge, but they entice customers into paying more anyway.
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.comPaywalling features that require computing power or human resources is one thing. But locking features behind paywalls solely to squeeze more money out of customers is a different story.
Here are a few examples tech companies misuse this technique:
1. Google Pixel’s Paywalling
Take Google’s Pixel Photo Boost as an example. This feature, which operates entirely on the cloud and requires no additional hardware, is exclusive to the Pixel 8 Pro and higher models. It’s not available on older Pixel devices, even though they’re fully capable of supporting it. This decision seems less about technical limitations and more about pushing users to buy higher-end devices.
2. Spotify’s Comic “Freemium” Service
Spotify’s free plan is ad-supported, and it’s reasonable for it to have some limitations. But Spotify takes it further with restrictions that feel more like coercion than a fair trade-off.
For instance, free users can’t freely navigate between songs. The back (previous) button is disabled, and users can’t manage their playlists or queues. (they’ve enabled the back button recently) You can’t add songs to the queue, and viewing the queue is also off-limits. These restrictions seem less about maintaining a “free” experience and more about forcing users to subscribe to the premium plan. It’s a textbook example of a company prioritizing profits over user experience.
3. Proton’s Dark Web Monitoring Gimmick
Proton is often lauded by the privacy and open-source community for its ethical practices. But Proton’s approach to “Dark Web Monitoring” in its password manager, Proton Pass, raises eyebrows.
This feature scans for breaches involving your user IDs and passwords, then alerts you if your credentials have been leaked. However, while they notify you of a breach and reveal the source domain, the actual details of the breach are blurred. To see the full details, you’re required to pay for the premium plan.
Proton’s decision to show partial breach details — and lock the rest behind a paywall — feels like a classic “dark pattern” tactic, especially disappointing from a company that’s built its reputation on transparency and privacy.
4. Not Just Tech
BMW, one fine day, saw it fit to jump in on the Subscription bandwagon. It introduced “Heated Seats” for an \$18 a month subscription!
This pricks more as you’ve already paid for the hardware, but the software to provide the service is locked behind a paywall, and a very pricey one at that. What’s more- they already had a a slew of features ready in the paywall pipeline ready to be implemented.
People Vs BMW. Score People. After immediate backlash, BMW rescinded this tragedy! (Source: https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/7/23863258/bmw-cancel-heated-seat-subscription-microtransaction)
These examples highlight a growing trend of companies using manipulative tactics to push users into paying more. Software-based features, essential usability functions, and privacy safeguards are being locked behind paywalls not for technical reasons, but for sheer greed Customers deserve better.
#Android #BigTech #BMW #Capitalism #Consumerism #CorporateGreed #Google #Greed #music #news #Paywalling #ProtonMail #SmartPhones #Spotify #Technology #writing
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Similarly, a lot of decisions are mostly done out of necessity
[i.e. #SystemD doesn't fit into 1440kB]or due to licensing conflicts
[i.e. #grsec / #grsecurity is #paywalling access to it's sources so we won't even consider it as #FLOSS... ]
https://grsecurity.netAlso apparently grsec managed to get their #Wikipedia [article wiped](
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grsecurity ) so [WaybackMachine to the rescue]( https://web.archive.org/web/20190429055854/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grsecurity )...So yeah...
I hope that answers the question... -
@siguza which IMHO should be illegal #rentseeking by #racketeering as #Apple has no business charging #devs that don't use their infrastructure at all.
It's Apple's decision to not allow "#sideloading" aka. #Installing Apps outside of their Stores or rather #paywalling that.
I wished @EU_Commission was actually staffed with competent #TechLiterates instead of #InternetPrinting #TechIlliterates like #Zensursula...
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@kurth @geist Dass ergibt sich ja schon durch #Sendelizenzen und anderen #bürokratisch|en #Bullshit der nichts mit #Jugendschutz oder #Presserecht zu tun hat sondern einzig und allein als #Paywalling fungiert um #Medienvielfalt "#VonUnten" zu verhindern!
Sonst hätte es nie #RTdeutsch gegeben und sonst wären weder #BildTV noch #NIUS / #Reichelt je genemigt worden!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny3_PWsxofY
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@kurth @geist Dass ergibt sich ja schon durch #Sendelizenzen und anderen #bürokratisch|en #Bullshit der nichts mit #Jugendschutz oder #Presserecht zu tun hat sondern einzig und allein als #Paywalling fungiert um #Medienvielfalt "#VonUnten" zu verhindern!
Sonst hätte es nie #RTdeutsch gegeben und sonst wären weder #BildTV noch #NIUS / #Reichelt je genemigt worden!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny3_PWsxofY
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@kurth @geist Dass ergibt sich ja schon durch #Sendelizenzen und anderen #bürokratisch|en #Bullshit der nichts mit #Jugendschutz oder #Presserecht zu tun hat sondern einzig und allein als #Paywalling fungiert um #Medienvielfalt "#VonUnten" zu verhindern!
Sonst hätte es nie #RTdeutsch gegeben und sonst wären weder #BildTV noch #NIUS / #Reichelt je genemigt worden!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny3_PWsxofY
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Links to #paywalled articles should be put behind a CW tbh :sagume_think:
#paywall #paywalling #fediversemeta -
You remember the promise of the internet ? Knowledge at your fingertips etc ? Well, surprise surprise, that was a grift.
With search engines like google compromised by ad money and the LLM plague, the final paywalling of knowledge has begun through the emergence of subscription-based services like https://kagi.com/. The wealth differential can now translate directly to a knowledge differential as the internet turns into a cabal.
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@benjaminedwardwebb +9001%
#Paywalling access to standards isn't open - compared to that the anti-competitive #SSPL #license is open despite being designed to make it impossible to do any commercial offering with it (it's worse than #AGPLv3)...
I could at least understand if they said "Available for Licensing under #FRAND terms" if everyone gets to pay the same flat fee...
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@benjaminedwardwebb +9001%
#Paywalling access to standards isn't open - compared to that the anti-competitive #SSPL #license is open despite being designed to make it impossible to do any commercial offering with it (it's worse than #AGPLv3)...
I could at least understand if they said "Available for Licensing under #FRAND terms" if everyone gets to pay the same flat fee...
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@benjaminedwardwebb +9001%
#Paywalling access to standards isn't open - compared to that the anti-competitive #SSPL #license is open despite being designed to make it impossible to do any commercial offering with it (it's worse than #AGPLv3)...
I could at least understand if they said "Available for Licensing under #FRAND terms" if everyone gets to pay the same flat fee...
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The only thing any #LinkTax and #Paywalling does is drive people from "#Quality [#Mainsteam] #News Outlets" to questionable [tinfoilhatted] #FakeNews & #Propaganda #Media whist propping up some #ValueRemoving #Rentseekers in the form of #CollectingAgencies that also require more #Tracking and further #Enshittification!
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The only thing any #LinkTax and #Paywalling does is drive people from "#Quality [#Mainsteam] #News Outlets" to questionable [tinfoilhatted] #FakeNews & #Propaganda #Media whist propping up some #ValueRemoving #Rentseekers in the form of #CollectingAgencies that also require more #Tracking and further #Enshittification!
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The only thing any #LinkTax and #Paywalling does is drive people from "#Quality [#Mainsteam] #News Outlets" to questionable [tinfoilhatted] #FakeNews & #Propaganda #Media whist propping up some #ValueRemoving #Rentseekers in the form of #CollectingAgencies that also require more #Tracking and further #Enshittification!