Student sues Amazon: Kindle gobbled up his homework (result of Orwellian deletion)
Details in Engadget—source of the dog-ate-my-homework image.
Meanwhile a news release from a law firm involved with the homework case says:
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.
The law firm hopes to turn this into a class action suit.
Related: PDF of complaint.
Technorati Tags: Justin D. Gawronski,Justin Gawronski
July 30th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Greed in action… first we kill all the lawyers!
July 30th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Huh. Funny thing. The NY Times a few days ago said Gavronski had declined to join someone else’s class-action suit against Amazon. I guess he had his reasons.
July 30th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
High school kid probably saving money for college - ambulance chaser comes along and starts making claims of how he can make some big bucks. Hard to resist I guess…
But c’mon, this is the USofA, we knew somebody was going to sue over this.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. About a decade or so ago there was an incredibly bad piece of technology oriented legislation that the corporate interests were trying to cram thru all 50 states called UCITA. Fortunately, as word spread, there was enough of a popular uproar over that act that most states ignored it.
However, two states, Virginia (my state) and Maryland did pass the legislation.
As I recall, one of the pieces of that mud pie was the explicit permission for software providers to do essentially what Amazon did - reach into a device and remove/disable software.
So for residents of VA amd MD I believe Amazon’s actions in the “Delete-gate Scandal” possibly/probably were legal. Be interesting to see if any residents of those two states become a part of this action and how that plays out (should Amazon not cave in early in the game anyway).
July 30th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
As much as I loath the tendancy to sue whenever anything happens, I would applaud highlighting this practice - the student bought his required reading in good faith and used it to do his notes. If a fellow student stole a paper book along with the kid’s study notes it would be “theft” and the offender would be expelled from school. Amazon could have at least allowed the student to retrieve his notes.
July 30th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
I don’t think these businesses care what they do to people as long as they’re making money. We tolerate way too much from them. I’m all for giving them back a little hurt. What Amazon did was wrong and there should be consequences for them that they actually care about.
July 31st, 2009 at 7:46 am
I don’t agree with what Amazon did, but serious. This kid is suing over HOMEWORK! So if my PC dies and I lose all my homework or even work for my job, do I get to sue Apple and/or Microsoft because I lost all of my work?
Go buy a paper copy of the book, do your homework over and get some common sense.
July 31st, 2009 at 9:31 am
His homework was still in “My Clippings” even after Amazon removed the book, was it not? So he doesn’t have them on the same page as the book, big deal, he still didn’t lose them, so Amazon did not “steal” his homework, he still has them. He could also have re-installed the book on his kindle with the australian version, but then that would make him wrong as well as Amazon, no? I think this whole stink smells highly of ambulance chaser.
July 31st, 2009 at 10:40 am
what Al says.
it’s not amazon’s fault that the kid’s too stupid or lazy to get a print copy from the library and match his notes to the corresponding passages, listing the page numbers. HIS NOTES ARE A FREAKING EDITABLE TEXT FILE. sorry. minor fit of pique. it sucks to lose work when one is under a deadline; but cr@p like that happens all the time, for all kinds of reasons. when one is working with a text that one doesn’t even own, all the more reason to include solid landmarks in one’s notes.
pretty sure this suit will go nowhere. unless we’ll be able to sue the library for weeding the edition of a book we borrowed, and based our notes on. it’s not like the kid didn’t get the purchase price refunded.
July 31st, 2009 at 3:14 pm
If he still has the notes, I don’t see how he would even have a case.
But as far as “these things happen all the time”- there is a big difference in a piece of equipment malfunctioning and it being nobody’s fault, or maybe even your own fault for poor maintenance, and a company coming onto your device and TAKING a file you PURCHASED and were using.
I think what Amazon did steps WAY over the boundaries of acceptable behavior, and I don’t understand why anyone (other than people making money from Amazon.com) would be defending them. The lawsuit has a valid purpose - teach Amazon.com where the boundaries are; clearly they either don’t know or don’t care.
July 31st, 2009 at 4:20 pm
“The lawsuit has a valid purpose - teach Amazon.com where the boundaries are; clearly they either don’t know or don’t care.”
I think you must have missed the very positive apology by Jeff Bezos because if you had I don’t think you would have made the above comment. Since he has recanted and said he is taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again, I fail to see where the legal system should “punish” him for making a mistake. I firmly believe that a law suit should be a last resort step, not a first response as it seems to me to becoming. The guy that is suing is not suing for money but to have a restraining order issued against Amazon to not take off books again and Jeff Bezos has already stated he is going to do that, barring outside intervention.
July 31st, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Oh yeah? And what else has Jeff Bezos said? Why would you trust a company that has proven itself untrustworthy?
August 1st, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Don’t know about the validity of this lawsuit, but there is an important issue re: the validity of homework, in general. I have an idea to share re: homework.
On back-to-school night last year, I made a deal with their parents: I said, “I won’t assign grammar or essay homework, if you will supervise your child’s reading-discussion homework.” Every parent made positive comments about this approach to homework. Few parents at the intermediate, middle, or high school levels want to or know how to supervise written work. Supervising their child’s reading is something that parents support and perceive as valuable.
Here, in a nutshell is the homework plan: Students read for thirty minutes, four times per week. Parents grade a three-minute discussion of each reading session. Students lead this discussion with reading comprehension strategy discussion prompts. I got a high degree of buy-in from parents and students. I flesh out this homework program much more on my blog at Homework That Makes Sense.