SAN FRANCISCO – Amazon.com has settled for $150,000 (€103,000) a lawsuit brought by a high-school student and another consumer who claimed the online retailer illegally deleted digital copies of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Fourfrom their Kindle devices.
The settlement revealed that Amazon last month offered consumers whose books had been deleted a new free digital copy as well as $30. The lawsuit was initially filed in July in the US district court in Seattle and sought class-action status. It claimed Amazon did not have the right to delete digital content that had been purchased by consumers for use on their Kindles, the electronic reading devices made by Amazon.
This summer, Amazon acknowledged it deleted certain purchased e-books from the Kindles of some customers after learning a third party who had posted the books did not have the right to do so.
Under terms of the settlement, Amazon will not delete such works unless the consumer agrees, a refund is requested, or the work contains harmful code that would damage operation of the Kindle.
Amazon will pay the plaintiffs’ lawyers a fee of $150,000 to be donated to “a charitable organisation” that promotes literacy or children’s issues. – (Reuters)