Not to be outdone by Amazon, Barnes & Noble has announced that its readers who subscribe to the New York Times via the Nook will receive free, unlimited access to the paper's website once it is launched.

The group of Nook users who read the NYT on their tablets will be notified through e-mail in the coming weeks about how to gain free access to NYTimes.com once it finally launches.

Letting users through the NYT's paywall might seem a strange thing to do given the speculation that this less than perfect protection cost $40 million - an amazing amount as any developer will tell you. Even after some denying by the NYT, the estimated cost still stands at $25 million which is still over the top.