Is Bypass paywall clean safe?

Just started using paywall bypass plugin - BPC. Honestly, love it so far. I found that both their github and gitlab are blocked. I found that tool at gitflic.ru

Never, used this repository or the extension before. Curious, if people from the community use it and how secure they would consider this?

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Magnolia's Twitter Account: https://x.com/Magnolia1234B
\ Nitter Link: https://nitter.tiekoetter.com/Magnolia1234B
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bypass_Paywalls_Clean
It used to be on the official Firefox Extensions repository until DMCA takedown notices made them take it down.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210429215917/https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypass-paywalls-clean/
It used to be on gitlab until DMCA takedown notices made them take it down.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220320090024/https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean
It used to be on github until DMCA takedown notices made them take it down.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240611084455/https://github.com/bpc-clone/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean
It moved to gitflic.ru not because it's sketchy, but because of copyright enforcement.
It's kind of like sci-hub, in a way, it can only actually survive in a country that doesn't respect the US copyright cabal.
That being said, I've never audited the code, but it's open source (MIT-license) and signed by Mozilla as noted on its gitflic page:
PS although the add-on was removed from Mozilla’s add-on store (AMO) (because of DMCA Takedown Notice) it’s still signed and manually checked for security by Mozilla (hence the delay in signing).
- Yup, I saw this. Do you use the plugin too?
  
  Yes, I do use it, and I've never experienced any trouble with it.
I've been using it for years, and switched to that repository soon after the previous versions were taken down. No issues with it afaik, and I'm very grateful to the developers for keeping it going.
- Great, thanks now I can sleep a bit less stressed than usual :D
- Same here, long time user on FF, so this was actually a great thread
Holy shit, how did I make it this far in life without knowing about this add-on?
- Ahaha! This is an incredible plugin. Can access a lot more content, and would highlyrecommentd!
I use aHR0cHM6Ly9hcmNoaXZlLmlzLw==
Usually more effective to distribute
- Why are you encoding this?
  Also, typo
  
  Thats actually an interesting method to make AI not learn it.
- I do not understand this code. Can someone explain as if I were a total idiot?
  
  It's base64 for https://archive.is/
- Is the extension up-to-date then?
I use it. Never thought about security. I'm lazy.
- Ahahah! Did you also download from the gitflic.ru repository?
  
  Yes because that's where it's hosted and it was necessary after it was DMCA'd.
  I'm not sure where updates are pulled from once it's installed.
Thanks to this post, I have finally found the non-DCMAd version of the plugin. And of course, it is hosted in the Old Country nowadays 🫣 Thanks OP!
- Welcome! I am not sure if I can ever access news without it :)
Didn't know about the new repository, thanks for the info.

27 comments