Amazon.com has agreed not to remove e-books from U.S. user's electronic readers, called Kindle, without first seeking their permission. This agreement is a part of the settlement of a lawsuit, where Amazon had removed a George Orwell novel from a user's E-reader without seeking prior permission from him.
The lawsuit
Justin D. Gawronski, a 17-year-old student of Shelby Township, Michigan, had filed a lawsuit against the online retailer after it deleted the copies of two of George Orwell's books, namely "1984", and "Animal Farm" from its customer's e-book readers in July.
A number of readers, including Gawronski, had made important notes on the reader about it. Gawronski said that he suffered due to the deletion, as he was studying the book, and had to present "reflections" on every 100 pages. It was a part of the high school student's advance placement course.
His class action lawsuit called for certain damages to be paid, apart from a ban on any future deletions.
Amazon's defense
Amazon, in its defense, had stated that an outside party had added the books to its catalog, and thus, Amazon held no rights over them. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos issued an apology to his customers for the inconvenience, and also paid refunds to the buyers.
Further, in September, they went one step ahead and decided to give back the tiles, along with any annotations, for free to those whose work got deleted. They also offered an Amazon.com gift certificate or cheque.
The settlement
Amazon decided to make a settlement which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Seattle last week, and agreed not to delete books from the users’ Kindles without their consent.
The other reasons it stated for valid deletion were when the customer was unable to pay up, or asked for a refund, or when it was for their own, as well as Kindle's, security and protection from viruses. All this was a part of the court order.
Amazon also donated $ 150,000 to charity, as a part of its legal fee. The deal still needs to be approved by a judge.
Gawronski's Chicago based lawyer, Jay Edelson called the settlement "terrific". He was also representing an adult reader from the state of California.
He said, "We think in the end Amazon did the right thing."
Amazon's spokesman, on the other hand, said that the company had no comments to make.
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