Business Insider Subscribed - userscript

README.md

Business Insider subscribed - userscript

A Tampermonkey userscript you can use to read articles on businessinsider.com as if you were subscribed, that is - without paywall.

How does it work?

Business Insider subscribed hijacks the network request which otherwise loads the paywall. When the website API or code changes in areas relevant to this userscript, it may no longer work. If you find that the script no longer works, please report it in the comments below.

Is it fair?

Business Insider article content is delivered to your computer but hidden after the fact with browser scripting. This method of paywalling is cheap and better for SEO, but also easy to breach. So easy in fact that you can simply Disable Javascript for a page in your browser site settings and reload it, or for the raw version right-click, view page source. All this script does is automating the manual procedure for you whilst preserving page interactivity.

bi-subscribed.js

// ==UserScript==
// @name         Business Insider Subscribed
// @namespace    https://openuserjs.org/users/webketje
// @version      1.0.0
// @description  Read businessinsider.com articles as if you were subscribed (without paywall).
// @author       webketje
// @license      MIT
// @tag          news
// @downloadURL  https://openuserjs.org/install/webketje/Business_Insider_Subscribed.min.user.js
// @updateURL    https://openuserjs.org/meta/webketje/Business_Insider_Subscribed.meta.js
// @homepageURL  https://gist.github.com/webketje/fd7b8d4a979acc064a6930cc5d1dbc68
// @supportURL   https://gist.github.com/webketje/fd7b8d4a979acc064a6930cc5d1dbc68#comments
// @match        https://www.businessinsider.com/*
// @icon         data:image/png;base64,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
// @grant        unsafeWindow
// @run-at       document-start
// @noframes
// ==/UserScript==

(function (global) {
  'use strict';
  var offendingUrl = '/ajax/render-component?path=paywall/template'

  var cachedFetch = global.fetch
  global.fetch = function (url, options) {
    if (url === offendingUrl) {
      const nopaywall = { query: { path: 'paywall/template' }, rendered: '<div></div>' }
      global.fetch = cachedFetch
      return Promise.resolve(nopaywall)
    }
    return cachedFetch(url, options)
  }
})(unsafeWindow || window);

changelog.txt

2024-12-18 - v1.0.0
  - Initial release