Magazine-sharing site meets its demise
After having to remove many of the popular magazines it offered for free, Mygazines.com shuts down.
The magazine-sharing Web site Mygazines.com has shut down, just weeks after it was compelled by a lawsuit to remove the free digital copies of the popular copyrighted magazines it offered users.
The site, which was launched in July, provided users with free, uploadable copies of many popular magazines like People, Esquire, and Allure. Users of the site could comment on the magazines or articles, leave ratings, and use articles to create their own "custom" magazines.
Mygazines quickly drew the ire of publishers, and a group including Time Inc., Hearst, and Newsweek, filed suit in a New York district court on August 21, asking the site to be shut down in the U.S. A settlement was reached on September 8, under which Mygazines agreed to remove the publishers' copyrighted content and review uploaded content for unauthorized material.
Though the site initially continued to offer a limited number of titles for free, including Today's Bride and Computer Graphics World, the site now simply gives a message saying, "Due to monetary reasons and the state of the global economy, we unfortunately must close Mygazines.com. We simply ran out of funds to support the daily operations".