Law Firm Readying Class-Action Suit Against Amazon For Deleting Orwell Books From Users' Kindles
A law firm known for bringing class-action suits on behalf of consumers against Internet companies says it's readying a case against Amazon for deleting George Orwell books on users' Kindles.
"This is an incredible situation," says Jay Edelson of the law firm KamberEdelson. "What Amazon did was plainly illegal."
Last week, Amazon stunned consumers by deleting copies of George Orwell's 1984 and Big Brother from users' Kindles after learning of a copyright problem. The company, which sold the books for 99 cents each, discovered last week that the books had been added to its catalog by a company that didn't have the rights to them.
Amazon gave customers refunds, but Edelson says that's not a sufficient remedy. "Imagine Amazon had shipped a book to someone's house that it wasn't supposed to ship. It can't climb into the person's window, take it back, and leave $1.57."
Edelson says he intends to argue that the recall infringes on consumers' property rights. He will also argue that Amazon's ability to delete books makes the Kindle less valuable to consumers, who believed they were purchasing a device that would allow them to store books forever.
Edelson says he intends to seek to represent all Kindle owners in the case against Amazon.
Amazon's user agreement says that consumers who purchase e-books are buying the right "to keep a permanent copy" of the material. Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University, says that a court might be sympathetic to Amazon because the company was apparently trying to mitigate potential copyright infringement.
Other Web companies sued by KamberEdelson include NebuAd and Facebook.
0 comments on "Law Firm Readying Class-Action Suit Against Amazon For Deleting Orwell Books From Users' Kindles".
Leave a Comment
Recent Online Media Daily Articles
-
Network Advertising Initiative Proposes New Mobile Privacy Rules May 22, 9:03 p.m.
Moving forward with its plan to issue mobile privacy rules, the self-regulatory group Network Advertising Initiative ... -
Entertainment, Travel Bet On Mobile Banners May 22, 4:16 p.m.
Banner ads have long been the whipping boy of online advertising, and the same is now ... -
Marketers Should Tailor Specific Pitches To Tablet, Smartphone May 22, 2:51 p.m.
Don’t lump tablets in with mobile. That’s the takeaway of a new Forrester study looking at ... -
Good TV Content Trumps On, Whether Trad TV Or Streaming May 22, 2:42 p.m.
While consumers continue to perceive TV programming as superior in quality to that of online fare, ... -
Google Releases Self-Serve Display Benchmark Tool May 22, 2:02 p.m.
Understanding how a brand's online campaign competes with competitors requires trending benchmark data like engagement rates ... -
Twitter Brings Lead Generation To Tweets May 22, 1:14 p.m.
Twitter began testing a lead generation tool Wednesday in its tweet stream that resembles a cross ... -
DigitasLBi, Razorfish Tap Execs For Global Ops May 22, 11:26 a.m.
Publicis Groupe digital agencies DigitasLBi and Razorfish have installed new executives to run their respective international ... -
More Consumers Turn To Mobile To Research, Book Travel May 22, 8:53 a.m.
More than half of consumers used a mobile device to book travel in the last 90 ... -
Showrooming Overhyped, Mobile Key To Shopping Purchases May 22, 8:53 a.m.
Given consumers' mobile in-store shopping trends, some consider the showrooming hoopla overblown. The research process still ... -
Shopping App Swirl Adds In-Store Capability May 22, 8:53 a.m.
Swirl entered the mobile shopping fray last year with an iPhone app allowing users to learn ...
Another reason people don't respect lawyers. Amazon is clearly in the right about this and the law firm should go look for other deep pockets to pick.
Not so fast to defend Amazon there, he brings about an excellent argument. Not all lawyers are snakes, though the majority sure seem to be. Amazon messed up, why should the consumer be penalized? Just because it's a new technology they get a bye? I think his example of actually breaking in and taking a physical book is a great example. I don't own a Kindle, but I do have eReader on my phone and if I bought a book and they took it, I too would be PO'd.
Odd though, you can download a copy of 1984 in .doc format from newspeakdictionay.com hmmm...