MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Federal prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking the identities of thousands of people who bought used books through online retailer Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), newly unsealed court records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.
Big Brother is watching you.....comments please
2007-11-28 08:54:52 · 20 answers · asked by openyoureyespeople! 5 in News & Events ➔ Current Events
Brilliant site:http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/issues/1-torture/index.shtml check the details on this site re: RFID, so alarming, and companies like Tesco and M & S go about their business as if it's not a total invasion of privacy, truely Orwelian.
You absolutly have to watch this film:http://youtube.com/watch?v=bUsNQkV6o04
I feel really passionate about civil Liberties, when I was around 15 I became engrossed with George Orwell, consequently I have been focused on the shift in liberties and privacy. A lot of people really believe that there is a sway toward greater freedom as a natural progression that has gained a momentum they believe cannot be lost or stopped, how far from the truth that is. I think it is freighteining and even if we all got behind it I fear we are bailing water out of an already sunken ship, Oh dear that sounds so morose and I'm actually a positve person, sorry,
2007-11-28 21:45:11 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I suspect they've been keeping records for a very long time. There are books out there that inform and educate (unlike the mass media) that we can all buy & read. Who reads them though? Wouldn't we all rather sit in front of the box and be told how everything is (or isn't). I'm one of those who reads the books. It's like hearing two completely different stories about exactly the same thing sometimes. The frightening thing is, when they realize that the majority have started thinking for themselves, will it ever happen, what will they do then? Perhaps they'll turn the religions against each other again. Muslims, Muslims, Muslims......... What religion is Bush? He's the problem. Perhaps the draw of endless soap operas is just too powerful and the once creative inteligent minds of the masses are now permanently surpressed into submission and concern over non existant lives. I so loved the Stan and Hilda dialogues in the Ogden household, TV will never be the same. You can bet everything you have, they'll be monitoring this 'thing' as well. No doubt my name will be on a list somewhere.
2007-11-28 20:35:50 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
I have been to Madison and can confirm iot is a pretty strange place, but I never thought that buying used books may be against the law?
I know in england when the police are out to really get you we say they are throwing the book at you but this is CRAZY... Is it to protect the university book shop at the State University there?
I went ot one of their homecoming games recently, Beavers I think they were called, and judging by the conversation in the grandstand I seriously think Madisonites need to read more books, especially travel books about life in Michigan, Iowa and these exotic places....
2007-11-28 17:00:48 · answer #3 · answered by Dad 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Good on the judge that denied the warrant! Too many times the liberal judges have bowed to the idea that we need to be protected from ourselves and that we, the people bare watching.
While we all know that free speech is not free, the freedom of ideas shall not and cannot be impinged. By denying that warrant, the judge has preserved our right to read anything and think anything without fear of retribution.
2007-11-28 17:38:46 · answer #4 · answered by Druidheachd 2 · 4⤊ 1⤋
Ah, welcome to the Wonderful World of George Orwell; I wondered, when I first read the book, how long it would take for us to get there. Now I know.
I have been an Amazon customer for ten years or so and I never considered what I bought would be of any interest or value to anyone else. Chilling to say the least.
2007-11-28 16:59:15 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 1⤋
A scary sign of the times. More government control in our private lives. We must resist and protest. Wake up people!
My Compliments
2007-11-28 16:57:43 · answer #6 · answered by Faceless 4 · 4⤊ 0⤋
This crap goes on all the time and knuckleheads always jump all over you saying "we need them to stop terrorists!!!" when you point it out. Never mind we could save more lives by all washing our hands 2 more times a day than terrorists ever thought about taking!
2007-11-28 16:58:15 · answer #7 · answered by timssterling 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
My purchases of half a dozen Janet Evanovich novels and a couple more on potty training must really have lit their collective fuse.lol
2007-11-28 17:22:26 · answer #8 · answered by proud walker 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Both the U.S. and the U.K. are living in the the shadow of a new totalitarianistic philosophy carried out under the guise of anti terrorism. The real terrorism that we should fear are those being promulgated by our respective governments.
2007-11-28 17:02:18 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 1⤋
companies such as google and yahoo use web users habits to try and define what the eprson wants one year before the person knows they want it.. marketing gone mad... libraries keep records and these records can be viewed by government agencies.. i suppose if you ve nothng to hide then whatever... we are been being watched....
2007-11-28 16:59:36 · answer #10 · answered by tasha200 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋