GitLab has blocked the repository of Bypass Paywalls Clean (BPC), a project developing a browser-based add-on for organizing access to paywalls. The reason for the removal was complaints to GitLab that the add-on violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the United States.
The Paywall method is used by many publications (forbes.com, independent.co.uk, nytimes.com, etc.) to open the full text of recent articles only to paid subscribers. Links to such articles are actively promoted in social networks and search engines, but after clicking on the published links, instead of opening the full text, the user is offered a paid subscription if he wants to see the details.
Breaking the protection in BPC is a controversial issue, as sites with Paywall usually open full access to search engines and social networks, due to the fact that publications are interested in indexing texts and attracting visitors. Therefore, to bypass the access restriction, it is usually enough to simply change the browser ID and pretend to be a search bot “Googlebot”.