People who vehemently object to providing registration information to gain access to otherwise-free websites have alternatives.
Amy Gahran points out one in her
Contentious weblog: use the log-in "freethepresses" and password "freethepresses" on many news sites that require registration. (For those sites that require an e-mail address instead of just a user name, use "freethepresses@example.com".) This works, among other sites, at LATimes.com, NYTimes.com, ChicagoTribune.com, and WashingtonPost.com. It's not clear who's taken the time to create all these bogus registration accounts.
What should news web publishers do who discover these little end-runs around their user registration? My advice: nothing. Shutting down the accounts will just annoy those people who hate registration on websites, perhaps inciting hateful acts against your site. It's not a big deal; the number of people using these accounts is likely small. Live and let live.
This "trick" is nothing new. Arguably the first such use...
