Remember a few months ago when Amazon deleted a bunch of e-books from Kindle owners, including (ironically) George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four? Well, the company just settled a lawsuit filed by one of those affected by the preemptive move: Justin Gawronski, a 17-year-old high school student from Michigan who claims he made “copious notes” in his Kindle which were no longer connected to the relevant passages of the text and therefore rendered useless. Gawronski, who already received a $30 gift certificate in the wake of the deletion flap, will collect $150,000 (his reps indicate that after subtracting lawyer fees, the proceeds will go to charity). Still, that’s not bad compensation for losing a book that the teen admitted to the L.A. Times last July he was “between a quarter and halfway through” reading. I wonder if it’s too late for me to sue my family’s Labrador for mauling my much-marked-up high school edition of Animal Farm just days before freshman-year midterms.
Oct 2
2009
10:57 AM ET
Amazon settles suit with teen in Kindle-ate-my-homework case
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why can’t people just buy the book?… much easier to take notes in and you won’t have to spend over $100 for a stupid kindle or worry about suing!
Have you ever taken a college Literature course at the 300 level or higher, Allie? Arthurian Legend: FIFTEEN BOOKS in that many weeks. Top that with all the other courses I was taking. I WISH I’d had a Kindle then.
doesn’t mean a kindle would make it any easier.
I think for people in college, a Kindle is totally worth it. My bf paid over $100 for ONE book in a class that he had to buy 7 books for, which all have to be read this semester! Not only does he have to lug all the books to and from school, but one book is almost 3,000 pages long. Now, tell me a Kindle wouldn’t be easier?
by not being any easier i mean, how would you take notes in it? you probably have to pay to buy books on the kindle as well. it’s probably just as expensive. a kindle may be good for some people, but i personally wouldn’t buy one. taking notes in actual books is easier for me.
When you use one you’ll know if it’s easier or not, but you could acknowledge it’s WAY EASIER to load a bunch of ebooks in a portable gadget, than load a bunch of heavy books inside a bag and carry it around. Really. I wouldn’t mind taking notes in a loose sheet of paper if I found it hard to do on the Kindle.