The following chrome extension seems to accomplish the magic of bypassing a server-side paywall.<p>How? Server-side means the content isn't even sent to the browser. What can the browser do?<p>https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean
If you see this code<p><a href="https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean/-/blob/master/contentScript.js" rel="nofollow">https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean...</a><p>It is a 5000 piece of if else conditions where the author has handled each website separately.<p>The author is few techniques like
- redirecting to amp websites / mobile websites
- checking google cache for the mobile data
- removing paywall modals which might be coming<p>Just from the look of the couple of implementations, i don't think it will be able to render server side paywalls.<p><a href="https://pastes.io/1sp8o1nsxm" rel="nofollow">https://pastes.io/1sp8o1nsxm</a><p>Look at the implementation for medium.com, it is just about manipulating the dom. (I might be wrong :))
For "soft" paywalls (where, for example, a certain number of articles a day/week/month are available for free), the extension convinces the server that this user is unique and hasn't seen any other articles yet.