Dutch news

[markmcopc]

Dutch law has recently changed, requiring all websites to explicitly receive permission before allowing the use of cookies. This usually entails getting past a dialog pop-up before the website is accessible to the browser. Consequently, subscriptions to Dutch news feeds have broken for Calibre.

The text of the pop-up will typically be, "[SITE] is wettelijk verplicht toestemming te vragen voor het gebruik van cookies en soortgelijke technieken en u te informeren over het gebruik daarvan op de site. " ... etc.

I'm sorry to say that I don't know much about Python, so I don't think I'll be able to contribute to a solution to this problem. But, has a solution been applied to one website that I might be able to insert into the recipes that I'm interested in?

I want to be subscribed to Trouw, De Volkskrant, NRC Handelsblad and Elsevier.


Thank you for your help.

Mark
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[HarryT]

The same thing happened in the UK a few months ago (I think it was an EU thing), but there, it's just a one-time acceptance of the cookies. Once you've done that, the site behaves as before. Is this not the case with these sites?

[markvdvelde]

My experience is that only De Volkskrant is affected by this. You get to see only a few lines of the article and then the infamous cooky warning. NRC Handelsblad works fine so far. I am talking about the free articles, no subscription required.

[markvdvelde]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Once you've done that, the site behaves as before. Is this not the case with these sites?

No, unfortunately it's not. I've clicked "allow cookies" on De Volkskrant's website at least a dozen times now. It works when visiting the site, but when downloading content with Calibre all articles are replaced with the cookie pop up. See attachment

[markmcopc]

Originally Posted by markvdvelde

No, unfortunately it's not. I've clicked "allow cookies" on De Volkskrant's website at least a dozen times now. It works when visiting the site, but when downloading content with Calibre all articles are replaced with the cookie pop up. See attachment

The behavior is different for each of the websites, because each site has chosen a slightly different way of complying to the law. One of those regrettable, unintended consequences. Maybe someone with clout will help the bureaucrats understand the technical implications of their decision.

Meanwhile, the solution would have to be for Calibre to accept and store the cookie, or perhaps pass through the interaction to the user if that's what the law requires. Since each site has adopted a slightly different method, that won't be simple. Too bad. I had been reading Dutch news every day on my Kindle. No more.

[kovidgoyal]

I fixed the volksrant recipe, note that you must be using the current calibre release (0.9.16) for it to work as the volksrant website uses javascript to handle cookie tracking.

[markmcopc]

Thank you so much.!