Kid Wins Trial against Amazon [Receives $150,000 in Damages; Amazon Not to Remotely Wipe Books from Kindle Anymore]

Amazon’s Kindle popular eBook reader had one major flaw. At anytime Amazon could delete stuff from any Kindle without previous notice. That doesn’t sound too good does it? There are folks that went ahead and quit using it after Amazon has remotely deleted purchased copies of 1984 and Animal Farm from thousands of Kindle devices. Unfortunately for Amazon, the wipe process has also managed to delete a certain homework from a kid’s Kindle together with his copy of 1984.

Naturally the kid decided to sue Amazon for having eaten away its homework notes on George Orwell’s 1984 and it’s no surprise that he actually won. Will call it a win even though he and his co-plaintiff did settle with Amazon in the end for $150,000. That makes this homework one of the most expensive homeworks ever written, doesn’t it?

And the most important reason for which we’ll call this a win is the fact that Amazon will not be allowed to do any similar shenanigans with its content once it has been purchased by Kindle users. Here’ what the settlement says:

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).

Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos did make an apology after the massive deletion but that doesn’t make things right. We shouldn’t be afraid of losing content we paid for just because a company decides all of a sudden to ban stuff from its inventory. And by the way, 1984 and the Animal Farm are two great books and in case you missed them you should definitely get them back! Amazon is issuing a restore of the deleted copies or a $30 gift certificate to replace them to all the customers that have been affected by the deletion.