Magazines having problems by Claudia Sonea

Although I am not a big fan of magazines, it is true that they come very handy in our lives when we are waiting in a doctor office or at in a beauty salon, on the train/bus. Due to the digital piracy that it is extending from music to other industries, there is the possibility of them going bankrupt, especially in the context of low sales and ad revenue.
In the US, the members of the industry trade group Magazine Publishers of America are facing real issues thanks to a Web site called Mygazines.com that violates copyright laws by letting people to copy and upload popular magazines currently on newsstands. According to the press release on 29 July, the high-quality digital copies of magazines like People, Men's Health and The Economist are no different from those offered in the salons. Of course there are articles for free on the magazines Web sites, however, their release is controlled as well as the advertising sold with them. Magazine publishers are aware of the problem and they are thinking about legal action or a way to shut the site down, according to Dawn Bridges, a spokeswoman for Time Warner Inc.'s Time division.
It is not at all surprising that the Mygazines’ domain is registred in a British overseas territory called the Caribbean island nation of Anguilla, outside of the jurisdiction of U.S. copyright law, so there might be pointless to take any legal action. The good news is that the company’s servers might be physically in the United States and that content is available to Americans. Up to now the representatives of Mymagazines have refused to respond to the allegations or to show themselves. What is somewhat puzzling is that the source of the magazine’s income is unknown, so why would they disrespect copyright?
Grokster, a file-sharing site, has been found guilty of inducing infringement as a proof that the systems is getting hard on those who don’t respect the works of others. Stay connected for more!


related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080815/ap_on_hi_te/magazines_online_piracy;_ylt=AgHPqWilbSdKWR.J9iqPX8Ws0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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