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Monday, September 29, 2008

Mygazines' slow erosion

Back in July, I came across Mygazines.com, a YouTube-like site where users could upload scans of magazines or articles for all to share. Although I was a little suspicious about the the excellent quality of the scans -- they had a very high-end look for random user uploads -- I was thrilled to find free copies of magazines I no longer buy in paper.

What's more, the anonymous Carribean-based company running off out-of-reach PirateBay-related servers seemed impenetrable to even the most aggressive publishers.

(Fun? Yes. Copyright infringement? Absolutely.)

Well, I'm betting that some publisher has broken through, because the site's inventory of mainstream magazines is dwindling fast. First went the Time-Life offerings, then the Hearsts, and so on.

I hope Mygazines finds a way to bring them back, even through a paid model. Many of the top mags are offering most, if not all, of their content for free these days, but except for a handful that publish on Zinio.com or Relay, it's hard to find "emags" of top titles.

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