Judge backs Amazon, chides prosecutors in book-records case

LordFu · 11-28-2007

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Now if we can just find a judge with enough backbone to tell the government it cannot listen in on our phone calls without a warrant.

Our book-buying habits have been ruled off limits to lazy law-enforcement snoops by U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven Crocker, prompting federal prosecutors to abandon their attempt to strong-arm Amazon into coughing up customer records.

From an Associated Press report on newly unsealed court records:

"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.

Amazon, apparently giddy over the prospect of winning one of these battles, expressed a belief in those unsealed records that the judge's ruling would deter other prosecutors from seeking book-buying records.

Judge backs Amazon, chides prosecutors in book-records case | NetworkWorld.com Community

This is one of the few, exceedingly rare victories for privacy, in recent U.S. law. We need more judges like this one, IMO.