Student Wins '1984' Suit, $150K Against Amazon

[JMcEntegart]

The kid who's Kindle at his homework has successfully sued Amazon for $150,000.

Student Wins '1984' Suit, $150K Against Amazon : Read more

 

[burnley14]

How is this worth $150k? I have to pay my university $50k a year to take "a good amount of notes." This is screwed up.

 

[ssalim]

Screwed up, also as in many governments and the laws.

 

[gmcboot]

Punative damages. Is it excessive yes, but so was what Amazon did. Normally I would say suck it up to the kid, but what Amazon did is beyond the pale. They broke a trust with their customers and should have to pay somebody something. No millions of dollars, but something. This kid was first in line.

 

[JofaMang]

He didn't win, they settled. There is a difference. It may have been worth way more than 150k to Amazon to make this go away. Punitive Damages can be ridiculous, especially with a jury pointed to make an example of a big company. Big Deal?

 

[apache_lives]

depends on if that $150k was to pay for legal costs etc plus damages and what not but i mean seriously the logical thing would be to give a free copy of the book and a few credits towards other books/products etc, why 150k?

 

[Blessedman]

Good for Justin!!! Amazon should pay for this with more then just sorry. I bet now they are wishing they had just left the illegal copies to continue to float as it wouldn't have cost them nearly as much!

 

[jellico]

[citation][nom]burnley14[/nom]How is this worth $150k? I have to pay my university $50k a year to take "a good amount of notes." This is screwed up.[/citation]
Simple, it's cheaper than the cost of the defense. Let's see... the lawyer gets $50K off the top. Figure $10K for expenses. Justin Gawronski must pay taxes on the whole amount of the award, not just what he received, so figure, $38K (based on a conservative tax rate of 25%).

So, after all is said and done, Justin gets around $52K.

 

[AndrewMD]

That's what Amazon gets for being stupid!

 

[-unknown-]

[citation][nom]burnley14[/nom]How is this worth $150k? I have to pay my university $50k a year to take "a good amount of notes." This is screwed up.[/citation]
Its trivial, as is any compensation for any crime. How do you put a figure over a death? a wrongful imprisonment, etc.

It seems more like Amazon settled out of court but perhaps it was a verdict (I can't really tell from the article). At any rate, this is more about Amazon infringing on their customers rights than anything else. Amazon sold something to customers without having the proper agreement(s) in place, in turn, they attempted to correct the issue by taking the books away from customers who already purchased them.

In all fairness, if Amazon made a mistake, it should be Amazon that pays for the consequences, not their customers. Paying one person $150K doesn't make it right but I can see the reasoning behind the decision.

 

[Major7up]

I think that amount is reasonable considering what they did as well. And they will have hopefully learned from this whole fiasco and not repeat it.

 

[Montezuma]

There is nothing excessive or wrong about the judgment. Amazon violated an agreement and a person's privacy. Of course, I am sure Amazon spent that much or more on their defense.

 

[Parrdacc]

Well, I think it is fair. I mean how much of a price do you put on what Amazon did? We all agree that what they did was not only not right, but the fact they, without even so much as a heads up, deleted this book from not just the kid but everyone who had it is pretty will #@$% up. Almost smacks of cenesorship given the title they deleted and all. What I mainly get out of this is not only a very good apology from the CEO, but a company who later not only apologizes but stands by what they said and makes amends. Say what you will but that is something you just do not see and it is nice to know there are those people and companies out there like that. Hey this might even bring more people to Amazon. Maybe.

 

[foody]

Maybe instead of just trusting spell check you should actually proof read your articles. How do you half of you still have jobs?

 

[ThePatriot]

Its america!
Change!
Have not seen any.
Yes, we can!

It is obvious you can't.

 

[knickle]

This is exciting news for those who have fallen victim to a dog eating their homework.

 

[ssalim]

[citation][nom]foody[/nom]Maybe instead of just trusting spell check you should actually proof read your articles. How do you half of you still have jobs?[/citation]

How do you half of you?

 

[Guest]

I would say fair play to the kid... if it paid his college fees or whatever, but going and reading the article it seems the kid is giving it to charity (after the lawyers have taken their slice). So much respect to him.

I would have to be honest and admit I would be sorely tempted in his position to release a statement about using it to pay my tuition fees, a holiday and maybe a rainy day fund with the rest going to charity.

 

[Guest]

The kid who's Kindle at his homework

... should that read "ate" ? Proofread headlines moar.

 

[brett1042002]

^ lmao... fail