But as kevinacohn says, tracking where the viewers come from is not technically difficult – just check the Referer: header (misspelling is in the spec) in the HTTP request, which is something the browser sends automatically. But on the other hand, it would be quite easy for someone to write e.g. a browser plugin which fills in a bogus Referer entry whenever browsing the NYT site, such that every intra-NYT link appears to be an incoming link from the outside world when the browser requests hit the NYT server.

Consider that each method of gaining access has a “cost.” The highest possible cost is a monetary one, i.e., buying access will always be the user’s most expensive option. The next most expensive option is to use a paywall credit, since once used you can never get it back. The least expensive option is the referrer-based access.

So it’s a simple question of NYT assigning the right costs to different types of licenses and letting the access management system take it from there. Of course, access management systems that provide this functionality to publishers are readily available.

Disclosure: The company that I work for, Atypon, develops and supports the application that the Financial Times uses to power FT.com’s paywall and digital commerce. New York Times Digital is also a customer.

This effectively means there will be no paywall. There will be links to everything.