GitLab has blocked the repository of the BPC (Bypass Paywalls Clean) project, which develops a browser extension for accessing materials distributed under a paid subscription (Paywall). The removal was prompted by a complaint sent to GitLab regarding copyright infringement by the extension under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in the United States. Currently, developers of the extension are considering migrating the project to another Git hosting platform. The extension was previously removed from the Mozilla catalog for the same reason.
The Paywall method is used by many major English-language publications (forbes.com, independent.co.uk, newsweek.com, newyorker.com, nytimes.com, wsj.com, etc.) to allow full text access to recent articles only for paying subscribers. Links to such articles are actively promoted on social media and search engines, but after navigating to the published links, instead of accessing the full text, users are prompted to purchase a subscription if they wish to see the details.
The exact wording on which the BPC repository was blocked has not been disclosed, but it appears that the project is being accused of unlawfully bypassing technical protection measures for copyrighted content. The violation of protection in BPC is a contentious issue, as paywalled sites usually grant full access to search engines and social networks because publications are interested in indexing their texts and attracting visitors interested in this material. Therefore, to bypass access restrictions, it is typically enough to simply change the browser identifier and pretend to be the search bot 'Googlebot'. On some sites, it may also be necessary to clear session cookies and block certain scripts.
Source: opennet.ru
