Registering to Read Free Articles
To register or not to register, that is the question. Whether you are at home trying to read the latest gossip news on Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise or you are at work trying to find that news article on the mumps outbreak that the infectious disease doctor wanted, we have all been faced by news websites demanding our email address, birth year, income, etc. to register to view their free articles. It is annoying. I actually have an email account I created specifically for those situations and online shopping. The few times I actually login to that email account, I am greeted by hundreds and hundreds of spam messages, just another reason I am glad I don't give them my usual email address. Many online newspapers say they require registering to read free content online to gain more money for advertising. Advertising helps keep the newspaper running.
In order to get around this bothersome registration process some people use BugMeNot.com, a site that generates login names and passwords for registrations sites. The site claims to have usernames for over 109,000 sites and gets over 10,000 hits a day. I checked out BugMeNot.com and found usernames and passwords for The New York Times, The Washington Post, etc. All of which have free articles but require registration. There are other similar sites that try to help take the pain out registering. Mailinator is for people who want to register but don't want to use their real e-mail address and Spamgourmet "eats" unwanted e-mails.
However, is this ethical or even legal? What happens when the lines become blurred and the usernames and password retrieved give you access to archived content for free even though it is pay service? Why is it ok to use one of those services but not the other two listed above or others available on the web? You can monitor what others are saying on the ethical and legal debate on Poynter Online, or you can comment below.
2 Comments:
Krafty, this is a great post. I'm a frequent BugMeNot user for a variety of reasons: it's a hassle to register, it's annoying to have to remember passwords or to violate all sense of security and use easy passwords, and I just in general oppose someone saying, "well, we'd be happy to give you the content if you'll feed our marketing frenzy."
The New York Times has enough money to use cookies to track the stories I view and then tailor the ads I see based on that data; they could also follow the model of Salon and force you to watch a lengthy commercial to get to the full content. I'm willing to give up a little time so that publishers can get their ad revenue; I'm not usually willing to give up ANY privacy.
I could not agree more. These days, if someone links to a story, or I find one, and the news source requires me to register before reading it, I do one of two things. I either see if Lexis has picked up, or I simply do without. I find it extremely annoying (to the point of rudeness) that they would make me register to get what they claim is free content. Even if I were to use a "throwaway" email, it is still rude to be nosing for my information. While I don't use bugmenot (pretty much seems like another hassle having to go there to get a password), I have no problems with it whatsoever. The news sources add this annoyance, they deserve to be circumvented.
Actually, I like the model Salon uses. Now and then they do have a commercial that is actually worth watching, and overall, the idea is not intrusive. I understand they need their ad revenue, but annoying me and invading my privacy should not be the way.
Best, and keep on blogging.
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