Mygazines will go down in a flame of lawsuits
Mygazines, billed as the world’s largest digital magazine site launched late July but suprisingly got very little coverage in the tech blogosphere (Mashable aside pre-launch). The site scans and publishes print magazines, and encourages users to do so as well without permission, a RedLasso of print as Jossip described it.
Like RedLasso, Mygazines offers a great and highly usable catalog of media. Titles range from Cosmo Girl, Forbes and even the National Enquirer, and the layout of the site, and the ability to browse content has been well thought through. But like RedLasso, I simply ask: are they completely insane? This is an entire business based on other people’s content, a walking, talking lawsuit waiting to happen.
That the site is still up a week after launching is perhaps a miracle in itself. Post launch, the threats of lawsuits started. Jossip reported that the Magazine Publishers of America would commence legal action shortly July 31. DigitalMedia reports that Asian publishers aren’t happy, and in the UK the Periodical Publishers Association is encouraging members to sue fast and sue hard.
Jurisdiction may be the sites only short term saving grace. According to Folio, the site is registered to Salveo Limited, a U.K.-based company that sells health and beauty products, and lists its address as a post office box on the Caribbean island of Anguilla.
Mygazines will eventually fall, no matter where the owners are hiding, but in the mean time, it’s there to use. Whether you chose to visit it or not is up to you.
