News sites require a better authentication system

I recently read an Ars Technica article about a UK newspaper site that lost traffic after requiring users to register just to view articles. It describes how the site went from a 4% market share to 2% simply by requiring users to register, not pay, to view articles. I haven't used that site, but I have used the NY Times site when it required registration for certain things, and registering is a pain when all you want to do is read one article. Then, when you go back to read a different one, you still have to log in - usually. Sometimes cookies work well and the site remembers you, but not always. So, what are they going to do about this? Well, we have a lot more options today than we did a few years ago to authenticate users, and the OpenID system has been well proven and implemented; It wouldn't be a huge jump to allow users to log in using their Facebook or Google credentials. Of course those shouldn't be required, but they might as well be options. I think there's a better option waiting to be set up though: IP based authentication.

Businesses commonly set up IP based authentication so that all employees can access secured websites with industry-specific information. This allows employees to utilize the company's paid account to access the site without needing to know the login credentials. There is likely a seperate admin account that requires a password, but at least the users don't need to log in. Companies usually have a static, unchanging IP address though. Most residential internet subscribers have a temporarily assigned IP address, which can change every once and a while.

Services like DynDNS have already solved this problem for residential subscribers though. They made a program that occasionally checks in and lets the site know the users new IP address. So, why not set up an OpenID based website that loosely authenticates users based on their IP address? Then news sites looking to put up a wall can authenticate through OpenID for users just wishing to view articles. Access to personal information could be restricted for this auto-authentication and only shown once a seperate login process is completed. This dual authentication scheme could allow users to view articles quickly without anything more than a program running on their computer or router, then if they want to update their personal info or use their credit card to pay for services, they log in using their normal credentials.

Such a system could encourage users to set up an account for now, allowing news sites to get ready to construct the great pay wall. The news sites could even team up with a single OpenID provider so users can get all of their news from one source. Local, National, and Trade news all through the same convenient system yet served up by seperate sites and companies.

So news sites, if you're serious about this whole paywall thing, lets see you do it right. In the meantime I'll keep an eye out for news sites that know how to make good journalism free, like Ars Technica.

Who created patents, trademarks, and copyrights?

If (some) Christian leaders claim that all Christian values should be law in the US because the US laws are based off of Christian values, then they are saying that our country as a whole believes in Christian values, thus claiming an intellectual property right to those values and asserting that they still own them. So, it seems that religious leaders created patents and they wanted them to last thousands of years, very similar to the MPAA, RIAA, and BSA (Business software alliance). Please take this into account, Senators and Representatives.

If I may take this argument a step further, if Christian values must be ported into law as they become relevant, then the US is in effect licensing these values from Christianity and entering into an EULA (end user license agreement) which states that they are required to update when one becomes available. In this case, we are licensing a service from Christian leaders, much like Microsoft licenses XBox Live. It doesn't seem like we pay for this license (freeware), yet at least one (albeit non-Christian) religion demands payment for religious achievement (Scientology) and almost all others ask for donations (donationware). I will break down the EULA analogy a little bit more later, as I'm getting kind of off topic.

I guess I'm kind of arguing for two things at once or none at all. Perhaps we can establish prior work in core Christian values and the definition of "under God" so that religion's patent on those things can be nullified and the American people can define their laws without foreign groups asserting absolute control.

Analogy (C) Elliott Rezny, 2010. All rights reserved.
Just kidding, no copyright asserted. Do as you wish.