Amazon Kindles Lawsuit For Deleting Orwell From E-Readers

It was only a matter of time before a lawsuit against Amazon by Kindle reader owners whose copies of George Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm" were electronically removed from his device was filed. It happened Thursday.

A high schooler who lost not just his digitized Orwell book but his notes, and an adult Kindle owner, have sued the on-line company.

As has been widely reported, Amazon sold a version of "1984" which it later learned wasn't an authorized version. So it wirelessly reached into the devices and zapped the illicit versions, sending them down the memory hole, as it were.

It was, of course, a delicious irony since "1984" is a cautionary tale about the intrusiveness of the totalitarian state, represented by the figure Big Brother.

Not wanting to be seen as the web's version of that infamous character, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos apologized for the remote-controlled deletions, calling them "stupid."

But saying sorry doesn't mean you won't be sued.

 

From the AP:

The lawsuit seeking class-action status was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Seattle on behalf of Justin D. Gawronski, 17, a student at Eisenhower High School in Shelby Township, Mich., as well as Antoine J. Bruguier, an adult reader in Milpitas, Calif.

... The lawsuit said Amazon never disclosed to customers that it "possessed the technological ability or right to remotely delete digital content purchased through the Kindle Store."

Bruguier complained to Amazon repeatedly after losing his copy of "1984," appealing in vain for that or an authorized edition to be restored to his Kindle, according to the lawsuit. "I thought
that once purchased, the books were mine," he wrote.

Gawronski told The Associated Press he was assigned "1984" for an advanced placement course in which students must turn in "reflections" on each 100 pages of text when they return from summer break, then take a test. He was a quarter to halfway through the book when it disappeared from his Kindle...

... Jay Edelson, a Chicago lawyer who filed the lawsuit, said in a news release that Amazon's actions could have far-reaching consequences if allowed to stand.

"Amazon.com had no more right to hack into people's Kindles than its customers have the right to hack into Amazon's bank account to recover a mistaken overpayment," Edelson said.
"Technology companies increasingly feel that because they have the ability to access people's personal property, they have the right to do so. That is 100 percent contrary to the laws of this
country."