14 DAY TRIAL // The Amazon deleted books saga finally came to a close this week as the Internet giant has settled a lawsuit filed against it after the incident. Earlier this summer Amazon quietly and remotely deleted bought copies of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm after it found that the books had been sold without securing the proper rights. The move caused a public outcry and Michigan high school student Justin Gawronski sued the company for allegedly ruining his homework for the summer as it removed the notes he had created along with the book.
The two parties have now settled and the agreement is awaiting court approval, TechFlash reports. The fee for the student's lawyers, coming in at $150,000, will be paid by Amazon and the law firm has pledged a portion of that sum to charity. The lawsuit was seeking class action status, which could have proved to be much more damaging to Amazon and could have also dragged the suit for many years. But the most interesting part of the settlement isn't the financial side but rather the pledge Amazon made not to delete any more books except in some very strict circumstances.
“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),” the court papers read.
This is actually a real victory for all users and could mark a trend for services that deal with virtual goods. Amazon is effectively blocked from removing books without the users' consent and the exceptions to this are pretty solid. This shouldn't be that surprising though after Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos himself came out and called the move “stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles.” The company has been trying to make amends for the incident ever since and it's clear that it wants the whole thing behind it.