Very interesting update regarding the Mygazines.com story. The site has started posting advertisements around the mostly illegally uploaded content. The inventory is primary run-of-the-mill Google Ads, but the only other Ad banner on the site (as of this writing) is from MagsForLess.com, a site that purports to offer discount magazine subscriptions. There’s only one problem, the owner of the site, Joel Simkhai, has dozens and dozens of consumer complaints lodged against him by consumers who had problems getting what they paid for. Yesterday those complaints turned into a court judgment against Simkhai that orders him to pay $450,000 in refunds and penalties for the consumer problems. The story also claims that the 500 complaints he received is the most lodged against any vendor recorded by New York’s Internet Bureau.
According to Forbes, Simkhai also operates HalfPricedMags.com and AlmostFreeMags.com. What all this might have to do with Mygazines.com beyond advertising is unclear — considering the fact that the owner of the site has diligently avoided being identified — but as the only non-generic advertiser on the Mygazines.com site, the connection (albeit possibly coincidental) surely has to raise some eyebrows in the publishing community.
Ironically, the MagsForLess.com banner Ad on the Mygazines.com site displays several Conde Nast titles (GQ, Wired, Vogue) even though Mygazines.com was ordered to remove all Conde Nast content from its site. Similarly, the MagsForLess.com site offers no Conde Nast magazine subscriptions. Now might be the time for the creator of Mygazines.com to reveal himself lest some observers begin to draw some interesting conclusions.
UPDATE: The New York Daily News sheds more light on the MagsForLess case here…
FINAL UPDATE 12/30/2008: A couple of months ago Mygazines.com shut down leaving only a splash screen announcing the end of operations. Recently the site splash screen was updated again, removing the end of operations message and replaced with an appeal to potential ‘clients’ but still featuring none of the magazine content previously offered online.
Following up a story posted here earlier in the week, we now have an official statement from Time Inc. regarding the disappearance of all Time Inc. titles from “the Napster of print media” Mygazines.com. After directly contacting Time Inc. spokesperson Colleen McMillen she said, “To answer your question, the case with Mygazines.com was settled and our magazines have been removed.”
Beyond that McMillen declined to offer more detail, but we now have confirmation that Time Inc. took legal action against Mygazines.com and prevailed. Although we don’t have confirmation from Conde Nast, it would be safe to assume the same series of events led to the removal of their titles from the site as well. At this rate the dream spun by Mygazines.com that sought to redefine the print publishing industry looks to be on its death bed, kept alive only as long as the next lawsuit from the next publisher is somehow delayed.
Mygazines.com, the “Napster of print publishing,” has undergone a few subtle yet oddly significant changes over the last few weeks that raise a few interesting questions.
Originally launched by an anonymous person/group with no known address, verifiable corporate identity or fixed server location, the site offers scanned images of print magazines online (including the advertisements) for free and encourages visitors to upload their own magazines, all without apparent regard for copyright law. Although you may not have heard much about the site, within the mainstream publishing industry the site has some of the biggest publishers worried that the scourge of “free digital bits” may have finally come to put the final nail in the coffin of the flailing print publishing business. Some reports claim the site has up to 16,000 registered users since its July launch, but a new development might put a dent in those numbers.
At launch, Mygazines.com featured full issues of magazines such as Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair, Time, People, Essence, Sports Illustrated, and InStyle—as of today, not a trace of one of those magazines can be found on the site. (See a cached version of missing Wired page on Mygazines.com) What all those magazines have in common are two of the most powerful publishers on the planet, namely Conde Nast and Time Inc. While other mainstream magazines remain on the site (FastCompany, BusinessWeek, Discover , Scientific American, MIT Technology Review can all still be found on the site) for some reason the hundreds of pages of Conde Nast and Time Inc. content has been scrubbed from the site. Why?
I attempted to contact the owner of Mygazines.com to find some answers without success. But given the facts on hand, I have a couple of theories about the change.
Theory One: Conde Nast and Time Inc. agreed to sign up for the Mygazines.com Publisher Program, a new initiative on the site that offers “demographic statistics on all your uploaded publications, down to the page level, exclusive rights and control over your titles on mygazines.com, more…”
Likelihood: 20 percent - Since Conde Nast and Time Inc. already own exclusive rights to their titles, it’s unlikely the companies would sign up for any “rights” proffered by an anonymous entity.
Theory Two: Mygazines.com was forced to scrub Conde Nast and Time Inc. content due to some hush-hush, back room legal maneuvering by the publishing powerhouses, or a simple series of DMCA takedown notices.
Likelihood: 80 percent – It would be foolish to underestimate the power and reach of one of the most powerful publishers on the planet. That said, if a victory had been achieved by Conde Nast and Time Inc., wouldn’t we have heard a leak by now, thus prompting other publishers to follow the lead of the two major publishers?
Various reports finally pinned down the site’s server location to Stockholm, Sweden on a PRQ box owned by the founders of Pirate Bay, thus leading to speculation that the infamous site might be behind the new magazine sharing venture.
But in a recent non-denial denial blog posting the Pirate Bay owners said, “We would just like to point out one thing. Even though we do like disinformation spreading when it’s funny, everything that is hosted at PRQ is not operated by the team behind The Pirate Bay. I think that should clear up the lies in the press lately about another site that we have not set up.” So, since Mygazines.com was never specifically mentioned in the Pirate Bay post (a gesture that would have cleared up any confusion once and for all), the cryptic post leaves us all to continue to speculate about the true origins of the site.
In the meantime, if you want to get your Conde Nast or Time Inc. pirated magazine fix you’ll have to look somewhere other than Mygazines.com. What that means for the hundreds of other magazines still being consumed on the site remains to be seen—possibly in a major story in a Conde Nast or Time Inc. glossy title.
As hundreds of TechCrunch50 attendees wipe the sleep from their eyes, preparing for a day of Web 2.0 start-up viewing, they probably don’t realize that they’re about to find out that the biggest star of the TechCrunch50 event is a guy hunkered down in a tiny studio apartment in Tokyo on the other side of the planet. The man is Yong Fook and his software is called Sweetcron. Unfortunately, TechCrunch neglected to mention this when writing a post announcing the event’s news aggregation site that they claim was, “developed by Sean Percival.”
To Percival’s credit, and in the fine spirit of open source software, he included Fook’s Sweetcron logo and site link, leaving no doubt where the site’s architecture came from. But the TechCrunch scribe got it wrong and in short order Techcrunch readers began to rail against the major credit omission with comments like, “Harsh! Where’s the Open Source love for Yong Fook? It’s built using Sweetcron, at least give the guy and the project a mention!!!” and “This is absurd. Yongfook deserves credit for this. Stay classy Techcrunch, stay classy.”
And, even hours later as the list of TC50 start-up companies was posted to the site, no update came for the post that should have credited Fook. The grand irony of this situation is that the TC50 event is meant to expose small, up-and-coming developers and entrepreneurs like Fook who need funding to move their ideas to the next level. While Fook’s software is indeed open source, he has made it clear that he’s not happy about the lack of credit on the TC site.
In regards to the software, it’s actually a great new way to publish your “lifestream” in a seamless way that merges Twitter, Flickr, Digg, your blog posts and various other services onto one page in a clean, powerfully designed manner. A quick search around the Web reveals that many users have quickly fallen in love with the software as they tweak it (as TechCrunch did) to their own designs.
If there is any justice in the world of Web 2.0, (or at least some smart VCs paying attention above the din of TC50 hype) Fook will ultimately walk away from this event with far more attention and possibly funding than anyone who entered the official contest.
*CLICK ON THE LOCATION NAME TO VISIT AREA VIRTUALLY IN GOOGLE STREETVIEW.
Akihabara Station
When you first get off the train at Akihabara Station, this is probably the first sight you’ll see… the road to tech nirvana!
Yodobashi Camera
If you happen to exit on the other side of the station you’ll be perfectly positioned to visit Yodobashi Camera, the giant robot badass store of stores hovering over Akihabara’s other tiny ant-like shops. You won’t find bargains in Yodobashi Camera, but if you don’t have time to explore Akihabara and need something—anything—technology oriented in a hurry, this is the place. Just make sure you’ve had a good meal beforehand because you’ll probably end up staying in the place for hours.
Club Sega
For gamers, the first stop in Akiba should be Club Sega. This is it. The mythical place in Japan you’ve always dreamed about is real…games, games, and more games.
Sofmap Sofmap, another variety electronics chain store, is not one of my favorite stores, but occasionally it comes through on a particular item. With multiple locations in Akiba (the nickname for Akihabara), you cannot avoid the neon stare of Sofmap.
Tsukumo Tsukumo is one of the many medium-to-small electronics shops that provide the life blood of Akiba. This hidden gem is stocked to the brim with computers, chips, and robots.
Linux Cafe
By now you might be tired of all the gadgetry, so why not take a break at the Linux Cafe. Occasional tech events are held there, but it’s so upscale and clean that it just doesn’t match the stereotype many have of sunlight avoiding, code obsessed Linux devotees. On the entrance you’ll find a rather cute Linux Cafe manifesto.
Interesting Sights
Is there anywhere else on the planet where it’s common to find Super Mario chasing Pacman on the side of a building? Welcome to Akihabara!
Queen Dolce Cafe
One day, after a particularly difficult gadget search, I needed a break and happened upon the Queen Dolce Cafe. Up several flights of very narrow stairs you’ll find a tiny door, which leads to a tiny room, and in that room on an average day you’re likely to find random cosplay kids kicking back over coffee or tea. Small, dark, and intensely intimate, don’t enter unless your Japanese ability is at least fair, and you don’t mind cosplayers staring at “you” because you aren’t dressed for Halloween.
Faith PC
Akiba earned its geek cred by offering what other places can’t, namely built to order PC shops every few feet. This one called Faith PC is one of the rare Akiba shops that offers options in English.
Akibaoo
Sometimes the Internet well runs dry and you have to hit the streets to find crazy Japanese gadgets to present to the world on your blog, that’s when shops like Akibaoo come in handy. If it’s odd, small, and distinctly Japanese you’ll probably find it here.
Duty Free Shop
If you don’t think you have the stomach for navigating all the narrow streets and Japanese-only shops, try one of the many Duty Free shops that usually have one or two salesmen ready to assist. As a tourist point, it won’t yield the best deals or the most interesting gizmos, but if you can’t speak Japanese, these places are a good place to start.
Mac Collection
It’s not the Apple Store, but it’s better than most other stores when it comes to Mac goodies. Note to Mac Fanatics: Yes, they sell Macs. Yes, it’s in Akiba (tech mecca). But don’t expect any Genius Bar-level assistance or knowledge when it comes to your Apple needs.
Bit System Mac Repair
It might seem strange that finding a Mac repair shop in the middle of Akiba is difficult, but it is. One shop that never fails in the category of Mac emergencies is Bit System. The guys are friendly, knowledgeable, and they do what you expect Mac repair guys to do — live and breath Macs.
i-Cafe
At the end of the day you may discover that you need to come down off the high of taking in so much gadgetry. A good place to wind down while surfing the Internet is the i-Cafe. Located just a few floors above the cafe shown in the photo (they aren’t related) the i-Cafe offers a quiet, clean space in which to connect your laptop and surf the web while enjoying the cafe’s free (yep, free) coffee, soda and tea drink menu.
*CLICK ON THE LOCATION NAME TO VISIT AREA VIRTUALLY IN GOOGLE STREETVIEW.
Akihabara Station
When you first get off the train at Akihabara Station, this is probably the first sight you’ll see… the road to tech nirvana!
Yodobashi Camera
If you happen to exit on the other side of the station you’ll be perfectly positioned to visit Yodobashi [...] Photo: tomspixels
Many producers attempted to capture attention with valiant efforts in other genres like the amazing “Michael Clayton,” the flawed ending “No Country For Old Men,” the slow burn greatness of “Eastern Promises,” as well as various films about war, love and of course documentaries. But in a time when our world is so topsy turvy that even normal life resembles sci-fi, it turned out that sci-fi movies were the best vehicle to communicate the surreal nature of our current reality.
One last thing that I think it is important to point out is that each sci-fi film I mentioned had religion centrally tied to its plot. And, amazingly, not every film argued “in favor” of religion. In fact, “The Mist” and “Sunshine” appear to actively refute the importance of the Almighty as their plots come to resolution. As such, this brings into sharp relief the fact that the central struggle of our time relates not to war, the economy, or communism, but to religion and faith. As usual, science fiction points the way to the collective unconscious, or objective psyche, of American society.
The one film I have to recommend above all is “The Mist.” Old school fans of “The Fog” (like me) have nothing to worry about, this is completely different and definitely more important. I won’t give away the plot or surprises, but suffice to say that this film features one of the best “Oh crap, we [i.e. humanity] are so screwed beyond all hope at this moment we all might as well just off ourselves right now” moments in film history. Ten minutes to go until the end I truly had no idea what would happen next, and that is very rare in recent years.
My measure of a great sci-fi film is whether or not it has impact on non-sci-fi fans. Not for special effects spectacle, but for pure story. “The Mist” achieves this feat. Really, this is the kind of mind blowing classic sci-fi/horror I grew up with that made me love the genre. Even now, many weeks after having seen it, the film still resonates within me on many levels. You’ll either love it or hate. Go see it.
As a journalist sometimes your gut is your best friend when it comes identifying a story with real legs. Unfortunately, if the subject isn’t on your beat or you simply don’t have the time/resources, a story you know is important will go ignored for years. Such is the case with this blog and the dangers of cell phone use. I’ve been casually tracking any stories relating cell phone use to health problems for years and one thing that remains consistent is that no matter where the story is published it’s almost always a “small” story. I’ll leave the conspiracy theories to late night radio hosts and simply say that it’s a shame more isn’t published on this topic.
That’s why I was pleased and not a little scared when I found this item today, “Israeli study says regular mobile use increases tumour risk.” There’s nothing iffy or inconclusive about the story, it pretty much makes a flat out case that using cell phones is incredibly dangerous. But the story, for some reason, is tiny and has received very little coverage. Aside from asking yourself if potentially shaving years off your life is worth the convenience of a cell phone, you might also ask yourself why this story is receiving so little exposure in the way major coverage. Why?
*Background On This Post (or, Why I started posting on the potential dangers of cell phones): Around 1991 I was working as a marketing exec in the music business. At the time having a pager on your hip was standard operating equipment. I loved it. But after a couple of months I began to notice an aching pain where I had my pager clamped. I assumed it was just the clip, or the pressure of the device pressing against my body. So I started moving the pager around trying to find a more comfortable spot. It was then I that I realized that it was not the device’s body that was causing me pain. In fact it was the power/signal coming from/transmitted to the device that was causing the aching pain. I immediately stopped wearing pagers and the pain disappeared.
Then, a few years later when cell phones became standard operating equipment for nearly anyone doing business in New York, I experienced the same thing. For all my friends that have long wondered why a geek like me doesn’t carry around five cell phones and doesn’t always rush out to get the latest model, you now have your answer. I try very hard to limit my cell phone use and direct contact. I don’t need a major scientific study to tell me that when I keep a pager or cell phone close to my body it hurts and that that can’t be good.
I absolutely love cell phones and think they are an important part of our future, but I fear that we’re ignoring the underreported side-effects of using these devices because cell phones have simply become too important to get rid of completely. I expect more reports like the one above to surface. But at this point I’m not so sure that finding out cell phones are potentially bad for your health would stop most people from using them. After all, smoking cigarettes remains as popular as ever. Cough, cough…
I’ve read some decent analysis regarding Google’s new Android mobile computing platform and the new video from Sergey Brin announcing the $10 million fund to inspire developers to code new applications for the operating system. After mulling it over for a bit something occurred to me: This is Steve Jobs’ Mac OS vs. Windows nightmare all over again.
For those not versed in OS history, Apple/Jobs essentially lost the opportunity to own the computer industry many years ago by insisting on keeping the Mac OS wed “only” to Apple hardware while Microsoft opted to license its OS software to various hardware vendors. At the time, Apple’s strategy of controlling the entire hardware/software experience looked like a solid profit plan, while Microsoft’s early strategy seemed risky to such a young computing market.
The “sell the razor blades not the razor” technique is tried and true, but the personal computer business was a brand new market and success depended on Microsoft’s ability to cut enough of the right deals in a market that was then dominated by the giant known as IBM. Anyone that claims Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates weren’t engaging in a huge gamble are full of it. Regardless, that gamble paid off, and now Microsoft owns the lion’s share of the desktop OS market share.
Now that historic dynamic is at work again, happening right under everyone’s noses. This is Steve Jobs’ Mac OS vs. Windows nightmare all over again—only this time the nightmare is happening to Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer.
Google’s introduction of Android as an open source mobile phone computing platform is not a challenge to the iPhone. The iPhone is a boutique device with limited growth potential due to a closed environment and one—count’em—one cell phone provider. The real target of Google’s Android is Microsoft’s Windows Mobile computing platform. There are some foolish naysayers who either don’t get it or simply dislike Google as a company because it has become too powerful, but I’m convinced that this move will be almost as big if not bigger for Google than the company’s search dominance.
Watching the rise of Linux and then Firefox on the shoulders of the open source community has convinced me that, if played correctly, open source software is no longer a paper tiger when competing with closed platforms. The $10 million incentive offered to developers will only hasten Android’s adoption.
So, if you own an iPhone and think you are using the future of mobile computing, you’re only half right. Like the Windows vs. Mac platform war of old, the slick functionality of the iPhone is definitely the future of mobile computing, but the mobile market will be dominated by Android and the hundreds of companies and developers supporting the robust open platform.
During a brief speech (about 3 minutes, see video below) about the strike, Writers Guild of America member Howard Gould explains why the writers are striking: “It’s the way my kids watch TV… They hear about a show, they look for it on the Internet. Soon, when computers and your TV are connected, that’s how we’re all gonna watch. Those residuals are going to go from what they are [now] towards zero if we don’t make a stand now.”
He’s right. Only his prediction is a little late. The migration and money making from repurposing broadcast television content on the Internet has already begun. This may go a long way towards explaining why the studios aren’t so eager to negotiate this point. The real revenue already being generated by online repurposed TV content is probably already sweeter than we’d expect.
**More scenes from the strike include:
-”Grey’s Anatomy” star Sandra Oh chanting, “How greedy can you get, you have to share the Internet!”
Many producers attempted to capture attention with valiant efforts in other genres like the amazing “Michael Clayton,” the flawed ending “No Country For Old Men,” the slow burn greatness of “Eastern Promises,” as well as various films about war, love and of course documentaries. But in a time when our world is so topsy turvy that even normal life resembles sci-fi, it turned out that sci-fi movies were the best vehicle to communicate the surreal nature of our current reality. 
As a journalist sometimes your gut is your best friend when it comes identifying a story with real legs. Unfortunately, if the subject isn’t on your beat or you simply don’t have the time/resources, a story you know is important will go ignored for years. Such is the case with this blog and the dangers of cell phone use. I’ve been casually tracking any stories relating 
