One frustration for United States owners of copyrights and other intellectual property assets is combating infringers based in foreign locations. The United States Constitution limits the ability to sue a foreign person or company in a United States court. Suing in a United States court requires that the foreign person or company has some relationship or engage in some type of activity within the state in which the lawsuit is filed.
For that reason, some businesses organize offshore to make it difficult for copyright owners to pursue their infringing behavior.
The Case of Mygazines
The website, Mygazines, encourages visitors to digitize and upload articles from popular magazines. Its opening page indicates that “Mygazines is your place to browse, share, archive and customize unlimited magazine articles uploaded by you, the Mygazines community.” While many view that business model as blatant copyright infringement, Mygazine refutes this characterization in an email sent to various media.