Removes the more popular magazines from its site, but still contains some interesting titles to read.
It was just a few months after the launch of magazine-sharing web site Mygazines that it was sued by a number of angry publishers. According to recently revealed court documents, the site was able to reach a settlement with them on September 8th, and it means that it will largely be cutting back on the free content it offers. Mygazines agreed to remove the publishers’ copyrighted content and review uploaded content for unauthorized material.
The Mygazines
concept is simple, it essentially allows users to share magazines in the "same manner a doctors’ office, law firm, libraries, and hair salons would with their clients every day." The site allows users to read, archive and upload content for everyone to read and share within the online magazine community.
The problem is that it offered complete digital copies of popular magazines such as National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, People, and US Weekly, which then caused a number of publishers, including Time Inc., Hearst, Newsweek, Time, Hachette, McGraw-Hill, and Forbes to name a few to file suit in a New York district court on August 21, asking the site to be shut down in the U.S.
The suit was filed against Budd, Salveo Ltd., which was run by a Canadian named Darren Andrew Budd of Toronto.
In the complaint, the publishers said the “scope and audacity of the defendants infringing acts is breathtaking,” and that the site tried to avoid enforcement -switching its hosts (“variously located” in the Bahamas, Hong Kong, Russia and Sweden”) when one was served with a publisher’s cease-and-desist letter—in a “calculated effort to evade plaintiffs’ demands and detection.”
Mygazines still offers digital copies of magazines like Farm and Ranch Living, Oxygen, Blender, Forza, and Guitar Player among others.
I still prefer my magazines in physical form, but I know many who used the site quite frequently.
jared@zeropaid.com
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