NYTimes Enlists Twitter To Stop Stealers

Pretty soon, The New York Times is going to need more compliance officers (Web watchdogs?) than reporters. The august publisher has yet to debut the domestic version of its metered paywall, but breaches already abound. Under the new terms, users are only allowed 20 pageviews a month before the wall kicks in, but visits to the site via social media links are unlimited. "As I predicted, this was an inducement for someone to simply tweet a link to every single story on the site," writes Forbes' Jeff Bercovici. In the latest instance, a web developer used the Times's own API to automatically distribute Times stories via tweets. In response, "We have asked Twitter to disable this feed as it is in violation of our trademark," a Times spokeswoman tells Forbes. Moreover, the paper has been closely monitoring Twitter, and finding an increasing number of such violations. Adds Bercovici: "There are plenty of ways to tunnel under or through The New York Times's new online paywall, but if you're not careful about how you do it, the Times will shut you down."
Next story loading loading..

Discover Our Publications