Kindle 1984 Settlement: Amazon Agrees to Not Disappear Kindle Content
As reported by Eric Engleman in TechFlash, Amazon is one step closer to settling the class action brought against it alleging that Amazon wrongly deleted copies of 1984 from Kindles. Counsel for plaintiffs and Amazon have agreed on a settlement agreement [pdf], and it's waiting approval by the court.
What struck me about the settlement is the fact that Amazon seems to have agreed to a complete change in policy - i.e., it agreed to not delete Kindle content from anyone's Kindle, ever, except in certain narrow circumstances:
That's how I read the language above, anyway. (The definition of "Work" is fairly broad.) I don't think it's quite a consent decree, or some type of an order a third party could enforce rights under (not sure about this one), but it's interesting that Amazon agreed to such a broad change in policy. Sure, their CEO had made statements to the effect that "this would never happen again," but I didn't expect to find such a sweeping change in policy here. That's exactly why these cases often settle, because a company does not want to set adverse precedent. But here, Amazon is agreeing to a global change, not just as to these consumers, but as to all consumers.
Also, in these types of circumstances, companies often leave themselves plenty of wiggle room: "we can delete content, if we believe leaving the content on the device is contrary to our interests" or something like that. It's a win for the consumer to not find any of that loophole language here. There's not any room to remove content even if Amazon itself receives a notice of infringement or a takedown request. As I read the language, they actually need a "judicial or regulatory" order to remove content. (I guess the "protect the consumer" language is broad enough to encompass this.)
Finally, it looks like counsel for plaintiffs will be donating the entire amount of fees to charity.
What struck me about the settlement is the fact that Amazon seems to have agreed to a complete change in policy - i.e., it agreed to not delete Kindle content from anyone's Kindle, ever, except in certain narrow circumstances:
Also, in these types of circumstances, companies often leave themselves plenty of wiggle room: "we can delete content, if we believe leaving the content on the device is contrary to our interests" or something like that. It's a win for the consumer to not find any of that loophole language here. There's not any room to remove content even if Amazon itself receives a notice of infringement or a takedown request. As I read the language, they actually need a "judicial or regulatory" order to remove content. (I guess the "protect the consumer" language is broad enough to encompass this.)
Finally, it looks like counsel for plaintiffs will be donating the entire amount of fees to charity.
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