High School Student Sues Amazon.com Over Deletion of Summer Homework
Class action suit filed after Amazon surreptitiously deleted George Orwell books from customers’ Kindles.
kamberedelson.com - July 30, 2009
(PRNewsChannel) / Seattle, Wash. / A class action lawsuit filed today takes Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) to task after the company deleted George Orwell books from customers’ Kindles.
According to the lawsuit, Amazon.com deleted these books after claiming that it had mistakenly sold them without permission from the copyright owner.
After a barrage of criticism from customers, the media, and public interest organizations, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos apologized for the company’s behavior, conceding that it was “stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles.”
The suit is being brought by Justin D. Gawronski, a 17-year-old high school student who had purchased Orwell’s “1984” to complete a summer homework assignment.
When Amazon deleted the book from his Kindle, it rendered the electronic notes he had taken worthless.
“We appreciate Amazon.com’s new found contrition, but words are not enough,” explained Jay Edelson, the lead attorney for the class action. “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.”
The class action seeks injunctive relief barring Amazon.com from improperly accessing people’s Kindles in the future.
It also seeks monetary relief for those who lost work-product associated with the deleted books. Edelson’s firm, KamberEdelson, LLC, is a leading class action firm that focuses on internet, technology, and privacy issues.
It claims that that Amazon.com’s behavior could lead to even greater consequences if a quick precedent is not set.
“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% contrary to the laws of this country,” said Edelson.
Edelson’s firm has agreed to donate any money they receive from this suit to a charity, assuming that Amazon.com abides by its latest promise to take quick action to remedy this situation. Edelson is joined on the lawsuit by Steven Teppler and Michael Aschenbrener, both of KamberEdelson.
To download a copy of the federal lawsuit, https://prnewschannel.com/pdf/Amazon_Complaint.pdf
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successfully prosecuted many high-profile cases, including class actions arising out the 2007 contaminated pet food recalls, the Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends Wooden Railway lead paint recalls, and groundbreaking privacy
cases against Facebook, Sears, and others. Overall, its cases have resulted in the recovery hundreds of
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