But LWN has a feature specifically for sharing subscriber-only articles on social news sites, and that's why everyone can see this article. Presumably if this is killing them, they'd just turn that feature off.
Fair enough I guess. I don't work for LWN. I just felt slightly guilty by accessing a subscriber link that was probably intended more for "friends of a subscriber" than the whole internet community.
Honestly, though, if LWN was worried about this, they could put some sore of limit on the number of times a subscriber link could be used (per time unit?) or something. I don't think they are, and rightly so: the exposure to their content (which is very good value for the small amount of money they ask subscribers), as well as their liberal policy on these 'friend links' probably lead to more subscribers. Personally, I want to read the LWN articles when they appear there (on their RSS feed, to be precise), and not when someone gets around to posting a link on Hacker News.
Don't worry, I'm sure they wouldn't actually want to enforce the restrictions in their policies, and any suggestion that they would is clearly the work of Microsoft employed FUD-monsters.
More seriously, LWN articles get posted here quite often, and the exposure probably encourages more people to subscribe. I always assumed that was the point of allowing people to create these links to subscriber articles.
I'm having no trouble reading it. I'm not a subscriber.
LWN subscribers can create sharable links to articles that are not yet generally available to non-subscribers. People coming in via those links are allowed to see the article. That's what is happening here.
Full text of the notice at the top of the article:
"The following subscription-only content has been made available to you by an LWN subscriber. Thousands of subscribers depend on LWN for the best news from the Linux and free software communities. If you enjoy this article, please consider subscribing to LWN. Thank you for visiting LWN.net!"
At first glance it seems that they don't actually object to the article being shared.
I paid for a subscription once after reading a subscriber link shared on Reddit, in other to read some of LWN's other content; if not for the link I probably wouldn't have bothered. I'd be surprised if I was alone.
I normally don't submit content from LWN until it's a week old and available by default to non-subscribers. However, if they've written the best article on a topic that's gaining traction on HN I'll consider it. In this case I'd noticed two stories about GPL license revocation and Android make the front page recently, but they each seemed to focus on only a portion of the topic and to put their own spin on the topic.
To quote from LWN's FAQ:
"Where is it appropriate to post a subscriber link?
Almost anywhere. Private mail, messages to project mailing lists, and blog entries are all appropriate. As long as people do not use subscriber links as a way to defeat our attempts to gain subscribers, we are happy to see them shared."
So if you like this article, subscribe to LWN. I did!
Quoting LWN: "Reader subscriptions are a necessary way to fund the continued existence of LWN and the quality of its content."