Settlement Proposed for Kindle Case
Amazon apologized verbally in July for inappropriately deleting copies of 1984 (and Animal Farm) from customer’s Kindles. Now the company appears to have apologized with its check book.
According to court documents first reported on Seattle news site Tech Flash, a proposed settlement has been submitted to the court for the Case of Amazon’s Orwellian behavior.
The agreement, which was filed on September 25th, will require Amazon to pay $150,000 to the plaintiff’s law firm with KamberEdelson donating its portion of that to charity. (Ed. Update 10/7: the court document is embedded below)
In addition, Amazon agreed it will only remotely delete or modify customer purchased Kindle content if it meets one of four carefully worded criteria. These include situations where the customer consents, where the customer has failed to pay, where there’s a judicial order or if “deletion or modification is reasonably necessary to protect the consumer or the operation of a Device or network.”
Justin Gawronski, the 17 year old who initially filed the suit in July stayed true to his original goal of seeking a precedent and not money. For his troubles, he received a $30 gift certificate – one of two options offered to affected Kindle owners on September 3rd. His other choice would have been to receive new copies of the deleted files.
[updated]
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