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Kicking back at Kindle
Last week, Amazon went all Big Brother on Kindle owners, and the resulting outrage was totally appropriate.
Now, one person is turning that outrage into revenge. 17-year-old student Justin Gawronski decided to take action when his Kindle ate his homework assignment after Amazon deleted the unauthorized copies of 1984 that he innocently purchased. He lost his electronic notes and annotations stored along with his digital copy of George Orwell's classic. He's suing Amazon in a class action suit, asking to prevent Amazon from improperly accessing users' Kindles and he's also seeking punitive damages.
How much is a high school book report worth? Seems like the kid might get a more interesting story if he writes about this situation instead.
Via Engadget
By xzach_attackx at 4:46 PM ON 07/31/09
it's not about the god damned book report. it's about privacy invasions. and i hope he wins.
By doctorwinters at 5:06 PM ON 07/31/09
actually all of his notes would still be on the Kindle in the "my clippings" section. These do not get deleted with books.
By Al at 6:54 PM ON 07/31/09
Or do they?
By Conner at 9:09 PM ON 07/31/09
Would be terribly awkward if during the trial, someone from the defense went over to the kid, grabbed his Kindle and showed him where his notes are. Even better if they sneakily give him back the book to make it happen before the big moment. Then all the kid can do is go "Whoops, sorry about that y'all!" and commit Harry Carey, or whatever it is. Death to Smoochie.
By doctorwinters at 12:03 AM ON 08/01/09
"Or do they?"
Well....on my Kindle....when you highlight or take notes it is copied into a text based "my clippings" file that is separate from the book it can be copied onto your hard drive and read with any word processor and is not deleted when books are deleted. He hasn't lost anything except the digital copy of the book. He can print his notes and use them with a printed book version,
By monster at 4:11 AM ON 08/01/09
Check your facts Dvice!
"Gawronski took copious notes using the Kindle that were linked to particular passages in the book, the court document says, and while those notes are still accessible, they are useless without the passages they reference"
i.e: it would still be a pain in the ass and an unnecessary hassle to link up his digital notes with a new printed copy of the book.
By Brass Orchid at 2:14 AM ON 08/02/09
What happens in the cloud stays in the cloud. Unless it rains, naturally. Rule the Cloud, Rule the World. The implications for consideration are noteworthy. Maybe it's a good time to look where we're going.
By AngryJonny at 10:16 AM ON 08/03/09
As a teacher, I know students will go to great lengths to get out of doing (and especially redoing ) work, but this takes the cake. Do we sue the manufacturers when our computers crash and we lose work? (Hey, wait, that isn't a bad idea...)
By jahelmsjr at 10:48 AM ON 08/03/09
It's not the same as a computer crashing. It would be more along the lines of Microsoft taking back its operating system without telling you they were going to.
By Nocte at 3:03 AM ON 08/04/09
That's a little out. It's more akin to an employee at Borders breaking into your home, stealing your copy of 1984 you just bought, leaving a refund on the counter and leaving.
And I hope he wins.
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Nocte:
That's a little out. It's more akin to an employee at Borders breaking into your home, stealing your copy of 1984 y...More »