The North Country Gazette will sue the shit out of you if you read more than one article

A number of news sites, especially those that are still hanging onto their printed newspaper income model are getting into the idea of putting their content behind a pay wall, but so far no one’s done it quite as stupidly as The North Country Gazette, a paper from upstate New York. They’ve skipped over the actual pay wall part and jump to threatening you with charges of theft if you dare read more than one article on their site.

Here’s the message you see if you go to their site and read one article:

Their official policy however is not worded quite as nicely:

A subscription is required at North Country Gazette. We allow only one free read per visitor. We are currently gathering IPs and computer info on persistent intruders who refuse to buy subscription and are engaging in a theft of services. We have engaged an attorney who will be doing a bulk subpoena demand on each ISP involved, particularly Verizon Droids, Frontier and Road Runner, and will then pursue individual legal actions.

So instead of actually setting up a pay wall (and watching their site traffic plummet in the process) they’re just going to put a warning about theft in tiny letters at the bottom of the article and threaten you if you dare explore their site any further. I fully understand getting paid for the time and effort, but pay walls are for assholes. There’s much better ways to earn site revenue. I haven’t figured them out yet myself, but they’re out there. 

Via