Looking for help here. I created a new Firefox profile and wanted to load the Bypass Paywalls Clean Add-on/Extension from the XPI file. So I did what I’ve always done and got the message displayed above.
Then I went into about:config
and changed both xpinstall.whitelist.required
and xpinstall.signatures.required
to false
. Fully exited and restarted the browser but still, no dice.
Anyone know how to fix this?
SOLUTION: go to extensions.blocklist.enabled
and turn it to false
Oh they’re actively deciding what you can do with the software now. Cool. Love that.
If they didn’t have safeguarding in place, I’d be more worried. As with all things Firefox, it can be overridden.
“This isn’t safe” is very different from “I’ve arbitrarily decided you shouldn’t be able to use that”
A blocklist for malware would be safeguarding. But you can’t claim this is “safeguarding” against… completely safe software?
And it’s not exactly easily overridden, otherwise this post wouldn’t exist.
Sadly, there a few annoying things in Firefox which absolutely are not overridable at all. Firefox is heckin’ awesome, but this just ain’t true.
It is a safequard against getting sued.
The addon is in their store after all.
It’s an unverified extension and an about:config variable
I don’t understand why Mozilla is so smitten with this extension. They already removed it from AMO, why are policing it now. A tiny minority of folks use Firefox(as a percentage of market share) worldwide and only some part of it use this extension. Why go after it so hard?
They are policing it today, tomorrow they may say uBlock Origin violates our policies as well. Sure, technically one might be able to install via changing about:config toggle but that’s a bridge too far for most users.
It might seem I am making a huge mental jump for equating a paywall bypass extension to an adblocker extension, but in the eyes of corporations, both kind of users are equally loathed by them.
The purpose of this add-on is solely to circumvent access restrictions to copyrighted works. It is clearly a circumvention tool under the DMCA and therefore illegal to distribute in the USA.
The policy violation is that it breaks US law.
Guessing here, but Mozilla likely blacklisted it to disable it for all those who had it installed and cover their ass legally. Nobody can accuse them of aiding in the distribution of this illegal tool anymore.
While uBlock could be used for the same thing, it has a different primary use (blocking ads, which is still legal), so a similar charge against it might be successfully fought.
The DMCA is a fuck.
But even then, they’re only liable if they distribute it themselves. Why go the extra mile of blocking the addon being sideloaded, as it’s solely done by the user?
This isnt news tho, its been banned for years.
You can also use this filter list in uBlock Origin as an alternative
https://gitflic.ru/project/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-clean-filters/blob/raw?file=bpc-paywall-filter.txt
As BPC adds new sites to its list, it makes Firefox ask the user to accept access to those which can get annoying. Not to mention the developer keeps getting banned everywhere he puts it and you gotta hunt where the new updated extension is.
So my question is, does the list on uBlockO works as well as the extension?
I would have to do a one-for-one comparison, I haven’t checked that.
SOLUTION: go to
extensions.blocklist.enabled
and turn it tofalse
.If you have a custom
user.js
oruser-overrides.js
you might want to just add this to the file.Where did you get the extension? I’m interested in it now.
Chrome: https://gitflic.ru/project/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean
Firefox: https://gitflic.ru/project/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean
Adblocker filter (& userscripts): https://gitflic.ru/project/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-clean-filters
Boom, installed, cool addon
Thank you!!!
I just reinstalled it this morning on Waterfox and Fennec.