Student Sues Amazon Over Deletion of Homework

What ever happened to the good old days when dogs ate homework?

The suit is being brought by Justin D. Gawronski, a 17-year-old high school student who had purchased Orwells 1984 to complete a summer homework assignment. When Amazon deleted the book from his Kindle, it rendered the electronic notes he had taken worthless.

it makes sense. Amazon shouldnt have the freedon to be able to alter information on YOUR kindle.

Sometimes I wish I could fall into a get rich quick by suing for something stupid scheme.

This kid is going after the money plain and simple. I doubt he really cares about the notes he made. If he was really reading the book they could easily be redone. Granted, Amazon did the wrong thing by deleting the books.

Yeah, if you found your way into Amazon's systems and started deleting things they'd probably come after you with the full force of the law. They might have been able to defend deleting a book and refunding it (although that's questionable as well, you can't just go in a place and take whatever you want then leave the money for what it cost them wholesale to buy the item originally.) but rendering the work of other people no longer accessible on purpose is crossing another line entirely.

What are the punitive damages for something like this? I doubt the kid will get much.

Did the lack of possessive apostrophes in that article bug anyone else?

Can you backup your notes from a kindle? If so then it's his own damn fault.

no but linking to a link did ;p

Originally Posted by Atheist

Did the lack of possessive apostrophes in that article bug anyone else?

No, but the bad press and probably the growing band of angry customers is damaging enough. This kid definitely has a leg to stand on in trial. I would be pissed off too if they deleted my notes, he should be glad he wasn't making notes on crime and punishment.

1984 is a book worth owning in paper form.

Amazon ate my homework?

Originally Posted by BucBrew

1984 is a book worth owning in paper form.

This. The very act of "owning" it in purely digital form is a mockery of the book's meaning.

Regardless of the homework, Amazon sold stolen property to many people, and then compounded that problem by stealing that property back again! Truly reprehensible business practices, and it surprises me that no criminal suit is being brought, never mind a civil action.

Originally Posted by BoogerBomb

This kid is going after the money plain and simple. I doubt he really cares about the notes he made. If he was really reading the book they could easily be redone. Granted, Amazon did the wrong thing by deleting the books.

Well it would wake Amazon up to the fact that they blundered badly and hopefully won't do it again. I would have never thought about students taking notes. In my mind, I see a bunch of upset people who didn't get a chance to finish reading the eBook. So I'm thinking "ok, so go buy the paper book and finish reading it". With that mentality, Amazon might do it again.

But homework? Business notes? Government notes? Amazon's going to be thinking twice before pulling that stunt again.

I didn't see anyone asking this question: Why are the e-notes that tied to the e-book? The e-notes shouldn't be so tied to the e-book that they get deleted if the e-book ever gets removed. That makes no sense at all and honestly sounds like a piss-poor design, if I am understanding this all correctly...

Originally Posted by whizdumb

Can you backup your notes from a kindle? If so then it's his own damn fault.

What good is that if there's no book to restore it to?

People buy books with the expectation that, baring theft or book damage, the words on the pages won't mysteriously disappear overnight because the publisher or distributor feels like it. Electronic books shouldn't be any different.

However, I'm surprised the guy is willing to go through the trouble to sue over lost notes for a high school assignment. I'd be pissed too, but I generally wouldn't care enough unless it was for a college theses or something of similar importance. Regardless, I would consider the lawsuit justified; Amazon really overstepped their bounds on this one.

The fact that Jeff Bezos ADMITTED they did the wrong thing, in print, may come back to haunt them on this one.

He's doing the right thing.

Good luck, bro.

Book stores dont recall books because they stop carrying that publisher, so I dont think amazon should be allowed to "recall" these ebooks either.