Amazon Settles with Student Whose Study Notes they Remotely Removed from Kindle   - 537 Views,

The move followed Amazon’s being made aware that the works were not actually yet out of copyright. (They had been uploaded by another user.)

Following Amazon’s removal of the works from their users’ Kindles, high school student Justin Gawronski sued Amazon, and the result was a $150,000 settlement. It should be noted that $150,000 while perhaps a lot of money to a high school student, is nothing compared to what it would have cost Amazon to fight the action.

Says the settlement document, “Amazon will pay Plaintiffs’ counsel a fee of $150,000, subject to the understanding that KamberEdelson LLC will donate its portion of that fee to a charitable organization that promotes literacy, children’s issues, secondary or post-secondary education, health, or job placement.”

In addition, the settlement goes on to spell out, “For copies of Works purchased pursuant to TOS granting “the non-exclusive right to keep a permanent copy” of each purchased Work and to “view, use and display [such Works] an unlimited number of times, solely on the [Devices] . . . and solely for [the purchasers’] personal, non-commercial use,” Amazon will not remotely delete or modify such Works from Devices purchased and being used in the United States unless (a) the user consents to such deletion or modification; (b) the user requests a refund for the Work or otherwise fails to pay for the Work (e.g., if a credit or debit card issuer declines to remit payment); (c) a judicial or regulatory order requires such deletion or modification; or (d) deletion or modification is reasonably necessary to protect the consumer or the operation of a Device or network through which the Device communicates (e.g., to remove harmful code embedded within a copy of a Work downloaded to a Device). This paragraph does not apply to (a) applications (whether developed or offered by Amazon or by third parties), software or other code; (b) transient content such as blogs; or (c) content that the publisher intends to be updated and replaced with newer content as newer content becomes available. With respect to newspaper and magazine subscriptions, nothing in this paragraph prohibits the current operational practice pursuant to which older issues are automatically deleted from the Device to make room for newer issues, absent affirmative action by the Device user to save older issues.”

Says Gawronski’s lawyer, Michael Aschenbrener, of the aforementioned KamberEdelson law firm, “It provides protection for Kindle users and provides confidence to them that the books, newspapers and magazines they purchase will not be subject to remote deletion by Amazon. It sends a message to digital media purveyors of all kinds that sellers really need to respect users’ rights to that content.”