Did the New York Times just turn Grinch and steal our access to the online articles?

[The Backlash Cometh]

I use to get easy access to their articles without a subscription, and now I get the registration form. Maybe it was something I said?

[B o d i]

1. Still works for me.

My first thought re: not working for you anymore was, something to do with this lawsuit?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10128600-93.html

(snip)

In its lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts on Monday, Fairport, N.Y.-based GateHouse Media, which publishes more than 100 papers in Massachusetts, accuses the Times of violating copyright by allowing its Boston Globe online unit to copy verbatim the headlines and first sentences from articles published on sites owned by GateHouse, including the Newton Tab.

The links, as seen on Boston.com's Newton site for instance, lead to the original articles on the GateHouse-owned sites, which display advertising. However the lawsuit claims GateHouse is losing advertising revenue as a result of the linking because readers don't see the ads on the GateHouse site's home page.

The linking also confuses readers, leading them to believe that GateHouse endorses the linking practice, according to the lawsuit.

Catherine Mathis, senior vice president of corporate communications at the New York Times, said the linking practice is commonly used around the Web and that GateHouse's claims are without merit.

"Boston.com's local pages, like hundreds of other news sites, aggregate headlines and snippets of relevant stories published on the Web. They link back to the originating site where the interested user can read the entire article," she wrote in a statement.

"Far from being illegal or improper, this practice of linking to sites is common and is familiar to anyone who has searched the Web," Mathis wrote. "It is fair and benefits both Web users and the originating site."

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Thanks for the info. That may be a good reason.

I use to access it directly without a subscription. Now it requires one, though it appears it will still be free.

[Mist]

3. Bug-me-not doesn't work anymore with the NY Times? nt