Ooooh, that tricksy little New York Times...

FINAL UPDATE, 21/11/13:  Forget my bookmarklet.  There's no point, and here's why.  Just open your Chrome browser (if you don't use Chrome, use Chrome).  Once it's open, go to nytimes.com.  Once there, right click on the link of whatever artcile/video you want to read/watch, and choose "Open link in incognito Window."   And you're done.  

I admit, had known about using incognito mode the whole time, but had developed the bookmarklet for all those who didn't use Chrome.  I've come to realize that ...well, you really should just use Chrome.

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UPDATE, 15/08/13:  Still working on my "super" bookmarklet.  But in the meantime, I discovered something... unusual.  As of yesterday (at least), when the paywall pops up, if you press F5, the page reloads and the paywall goes away.  That probably won't last, but it's working right now.

UPDATE, 14/07/13: So it worked, then it didn't, then it worked it again, and now it doesn't.  This back and forth is making me nauseous.  I have a plan for how to adjust things so that it will permanently work (unless the New York Times changes its arrangement with Google), and I'll post that "super" bookmarklet as soon as it's completed.

UPDATE, 22/06/13: IT WORKS AGAIN!!  But if it suddenly stops working for you, make sure to tell me.

UPDATE, 31/05/13: It would seem the New York Times has made a fix, rendering this bookmarklet temporarily useless.  I'm working on getting a new one up and running as fast as possible.

Spoiler:  If you don't care about the back story, and you just want New York Times articles for free, drag the link below into your bookmarks toolbar, and click on it whenever nytimes.com asks you to pay for something.

When the New York Times threw up their paywall a few years back, I must admit I was a bit concerned.  For right or wrong, my news consumption defaulted to nytimes.com, and I was none too excited about the prospect of having to pay for my fix.  But thanks to some enterprising javascript programmer, I was given a two year reprieve.  The bookmarklet, "NYTClean" was a clean little hack which simply wiped away the obnoxious demand to pay for content.

...until February, when it would seem the New York Times programming crew tried to get smart.  Suddenly NYTClean didn't work, no matter how many times I pressed it.

An article on Twitchy.com explained the situation.  The author contacted the New York Times spokesperson, who responded with:

When we launched our digital subscription plan we knew there were loopholes to access our content beyond the allotted number of articles each month. We have made some adjustments and will continue to make adjustments to optimize the gateway by implementing technical security solutions to prohibit abuse and protect the value of our content.

 For their part, Twitchy.com did suggest alternatives to paying, including a new and improved NYTClean bookmarklet (coined, "NYClean").  Unfortunately, the alternatives were either too cumbersome, or they didn't work (like "NYClean").

So I've developed my own solution, which I'm happy to share to all those who equally despise paying for another person's hard day's work.  To use it, simply drag the following bookmarklet (the one below, which says, 'NYTimes Free') onto your bookmarks toolbar and click on it whenever that pesky "Pay Me" screen pops up.