Unpaywall: Extension that looks for open access versions of paywalled academic articles.
https://unpaywall.org/
#academicchatter #paywalls #academia #openaccess
Unpaywall

Here is my #HotTake on this issue. I have noticed that #SocialNetworks offering #decentralization such as #blueSky through #ATProto and #NOSTR as well as #X #Twitter #Threads and #TruthSocial face greater shifts in #geopolitical #change now more so than ever before. Especially as #AgeVerification and #censorship #PayWalls goes live. Which threatens #centralized #ContentPlatforms through #identity and #coding exploits. Making #ActivityPub essential for modern #communication in #2026 effectively.

9to5 Google: Google Maps ‘limited view’ now hides reviews, images for signed-out users. “Google Maps is more than just a navigation app, as it contains a treasure trove of data about locations across the globe. But, suddenly, Google Maps appears to be changing how it functions for users who are signed out, including hiding reviews and images.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2026/02/19/9to5-google-google-maps-limited-view-now-hides-reviews-images-for-signed-out-users/
9to5 Google: Google Maps ‘limited view’ now hides reviews, images for signed-out users

9to5 Google: Google Maps ‘limited view’ now hides reviews, images for signed-out users. “Google Maps is more than just a navigation app, as it contains a treasure trove of data about location…

ResearchBuzz: Firehose

Ars Technica: Google experiments with locking YouTube Music lyrics behind paywall. “Google continues to turn the screws on free YouTube users, expanding a test that restricts access to song lyrics on YouTube Music. Users without a premium subscription have found that Google’s streaming music service only shows song lyrics a few times before demanding money.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2026/02/13/ars-technica-google-experiments-with-locking-youtube-music-lyrics-behind-paywall/

There is a handy #addon for #Firefox that lets you bypass most #paywalls.

There are several methods and one of them works for me on most of the #news #portals I use. So if you're a student like me and don't have a lot of #money to subscribe to hundreds of news portals for an overview, this is a handy help when #researching for schoolwork.

take a look: addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firef…

#knowledge #knowhow #software #tool #utility #browser #internet #web #www #website #paywall #information

Remove Paywall – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US)

Download Remove Paywall for Firefox. Remove paywalls from articles legally by searching public internet archives.

#Wikipedia is considering #blacklisting #Archivetoday after the archive site was used to direct a #DDoSattack against a blogger who tried to uncover the mysterious founder's identity. Wikipedia editors are debating removing all links and adding it to the #spam blacklist, which could affect over 695,000 links across 400,000 Wikipedia pages. The archive site is commonly used to #bypass news #paywalls and preserve web content. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/wikipedia-might-blacklist-archive-today-after-site-maintainer-ddosed-a-blog/?eicker.media #media #socialmedia
Archive.today CAPTCHA page executes DDoS; Wikipedia considers banning site

DDoS hit blog that tried to uncover Archive.today founder's identity in 2023.

Ars Technica

Whenever I discover someone's blog is a #Substack with a #paywall, even if 90 percent of the articles aren't behind it, I stop reading and don't visit that blog again. That's how much I disapprove of #paywalls.

"But I deserve to be paid for my work!" If you're offering your "expert" opinion, nah. If you're a journalist who had to interview sources and do legitimate research, yeah you do… so start a business and hire ad staff, or start a nonprofit and get donors. Paywalls are lazy, and hinder an informed populace.

News sites are locking out the Internet Archive to stop AI crawling. Is the ‘open web’ closing? | The-14

News sites blocking the Internet Archive to curb AI crawling risk shrinking the open web, limiting public access, digital history, and independent research.

The-14 Pictures
The AI-Powered Web Is Eating Itself https://www.noemamag.com/the-ai-powered-web-is-eating-itself
"AI threatens the business model of digital content creation across the board. As publishers lose traffic, there remains little incentive for them to keep content #free and #accessible. Instead, #paywalls and exclusive licensing are increasingly the norm. This will continue to shrink the freely available corpus of #information upon which both human knowledge and future #AI training depend.
The result will be a degraded and privatized information base. It will leave future AI systems working with a narrower, more fragile foundation of information, making their outputs increasingly dependent on whatever remains openly accessible"
The AI-Powered Web Is Eating Itself

Without a framework of “Artificial Integrity,” AI search platforms risk collapsing the information commons that made the web possible.

NOEMA
Wenn #zentralistischeGeschäftsmodelle #Wissen über Passierscheine regulieren … seien es #Paywalls, #Journals oder #akademischeTitel –, … ist das in #Schwellenzeiten nicht kritisch zu hinterfragen? #TeamWissenschaft 🖖