# Are we allowed to share tools that allow readers to get around paywalls when we link to a story?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [April 8, 2022, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546 "2022-04-08T22:03:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2022, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546/1 "2022-04-08T22:03:59Z")
My understanding is we cannot use link shorteners and must use the full URL link when we link to something in a post (understandable).
This sometimes leads to some people not being able to read that link because they do not subscribe to that source. A paywall (hard or soft) blocks them from reading it.
There are some websites that help people get around those paywalls. The sites are legal (I think…they exist in the US and have been there a while…I’ll share them here if mods say it is ok and people want to check them out).
These are not ad-laden sites or anything like that. Nothing to download. They are super-basic. Put a URL in, get the article out.
They do not work 100% of the time (Bloomberg always fails) but I find them a very useful tool.
While I know I cannot use their shortened links can I post a link to the site so people blocked by a paywall can read the article I linked?
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### Author:  [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2022, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546/2 "2022-04-08T22:56:15Z")
I certainly hope so. All the liberal papers are paywalled, but all the conservative ones aren’t, so guess where people get their information?
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### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2022, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546/3 "2022-04-08T23:29:25Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> can I post a link to the site so people blocked by a paywall can read the article I linked?
No, you may not.
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2022, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546/4 "2022-04-09T00:43:16Z")
Hate speech and dangerous misinformation are also legal, but not things that improve the SDMB.
I get the desire to help, but it doesn’t seem right to allow it.
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2022, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546/5 "2022-04-09T00:56:29Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> > [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
> >
> > can I post a link to the site so people blocked by a paywall can read the article I linked?
>
> No, you may not.
Just to be clear, gift links are perfectly legitimate:
> **[How to use gift articles](https://helpcenter.washingtonpost.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403823008539-How-to-Use-Gift-Articles)**
>
> What is a gift article?
> All Washington Post subscribers can now gift up to 10 free articles a month to anyone who does not have a Washington Post subscription. This new benefit is intended to help ...
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2022, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546/6 "2022-04-09T00:58:50Z")
In addition to gift links, you may find articles from the New York Times, the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal syndicated to another newspaper site that _doesn’t_ have a firewall. At the very least, you could probably find an article covering the same territory on a non-paywalled site.
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2022, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546/7 "2022-04-09T17:12:57Z")
[msn.com](http://msn.com) often has deals with newspapers to reprint the articles. So you just use Bing News to search.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2022, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546/8 "2022-04-09T17:48:22Z")
I’ve mentioned several times several trivially simple techniques that get around paywalls on many (but not all) news sites.
I’ve never heard of the rule against link-shorteners. What is the issue with them?
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### Author:  [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2022, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546/9 "2022-04-09T18:16:25Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> I’ve never heard of the rule against link-shorteners. What is the issue with them?
I don’t know why they’re disallowed specifically, but one problem is that they are evasive. It’s difficult or impossible to tell where the link is going to before clicking it.
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### Author:  [@Tarataratara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarataratara)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2022, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546/10 "2022-04-09T21:23:38Z")
Anyone who wants to read an NY Times article online, check with your local library. I can read the NY Times online by clicking through my library’s website.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2022, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546/11 "2022-04-10T02:38:40Z")
Can we link to “The Internet Archive Wayback Machine”?
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2022, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546/12 "2022-04-10T02:45:14Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> I’ve never heard of the rule against link-shorteners. What is the issue with them?
I may be conflating Reddit rules with SDMB rules. Reddit (or at least most subreddits I am familiar with) forbid link shorteners. As @Atamasama mentioned, they can hide where a link takes you and can be used to direct people to bad websites.
Plus, as a courtesy to other readers, it is helpful to just be able to hover over a link and see where it takes you without having to go there. Since you can embed a link into the text it doesn’t really matter if it is an obnoxiously long link (as some links like Google Maps can be).
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### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2022, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546/13 "2022-04-11T00:20:05Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> Can we link to “The Internet Archive Wayback Machine”?
In general there’s no problem with linking to the Wayback Machine.
That said, I’m sure someone will figure out some creative way to violate our rules with it. If it’s possible to figure out how to get articles out from behind paywalls using it, for example, that would not be permitted.
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### Author:  [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2022, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546/14 "2022-04-11T05:52:01Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> In addition to gift links, you may find articles from the New York Times, the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal syndicated to another newspaper site that _doesn’t_ have a firewall. At the very least, you could probably find an article covering the same territory on a non-paywalled site.
This is the easiest way. Just highlight the title of the article and search for it. There are plenty of sites that carry the articles that are not paywalled.
As an aside, when I right click on this thread and open in a new tab it says the site can’t be reached. If I just click on it, it opens normally. What’s up with that?
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### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2022, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546/15 "2022-04-11T06:25:18Z")
Broadly, I think we all need to pay more for quality journalism. I think you can imagine my view on this subject.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2022, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-allowed-to-share-tools-that-allow-readers-to-get-around-paywalls-when-we-link-to-a-story/962546/16 "2022-04-11T14:20:55Z")
I understand this completely and I agree.
The problem is, on a site like the SDMB, we can get articles linked from a myriad of sources and it is unreasonable to expect everyone to pay for every one of those sites. It is unworkable and unreasonably expensive.