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November 28, 2007

Amazon vs. the US government

Apparently the g-men in the US were trying to get customer reading habit data from Amazon. A judge ruled against them and poof, it’s over. For now.

Federal prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking the identities of thousands of people who bought used books through online retailer Amazon.com Inc., newly unsealed court records show.

The withdrawal came after a judge ruled the customers have a First Amendment right to keep their reading habits from the government.

“The (subpoena’s) chilling effect on expressive e-commerce would frost keyboards across America,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker wrote in a June ruling.

“Well-founded or not, rumors of an Orwellian federal criminal investigation into the reading habits of Amazon’s customers could frighten countless potential customers into canceling planned online book purchases,” the judge wrote in a ruling he unsealed last week.

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2 comments on “Amazon vs. the US government”

  1. E_I says:

    This reminds me. I have 1984 on my e-reader. I have to read it.

  2. Remi Gunn says:

    This reminds me of the folk singer Utah Philips’ response when someone asked if he wasn’t worried about the feds reading his mail. He didn’t mind because he figured “they have to learn this stuff somewhere.” This just makes me wish my reading tastes were even more bizarre.

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