Feds Cancel Amazon Customer ID Request

I love it when Big Brother "protects our freedoms".

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gz0slCB4SYJCVk2J3xbYHM6R55oAD8T66FAG0

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 (AP) — Federal prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking the identities of thousands of people who bought used books through online retailer Amazon.com Inc., newly unsealed court records show.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.

"Shining some sunlight on the instant dispute reassures the public that someone is watching the watchers, and that this district's federal prosecutors are part of the solution, not part of the problem," he wrote.

Do they really give a shit if I buy a used copy of Keeping Chickens?

seem to emphasize that aspect of the case. They needed witnesses, so the scoundrel/seller wraps himself with the First Amendment to hide his tax liability.
I don't think that they need to have a list of the books that each person bought, but they should have access to a customer list.

I love that last picture. The chicken seems to be raising a non-existent eyebrow.

I have only 3. They just finished molting (mostly) so I'm eagerly awaiting fresh eggs one of these days. I hate store bought eggs!

and now I have 5 hens, a rooster, and 4 as-yet-unknown-sexed almost pullet sized peeps!

LOL!

They are SO funny, and the eggs are fantastic!!! I could never go back to those pale, runny, tasteless storebought abominations........

so - missb - when can we see photos of YOUR little flock? :hi:

:eyes:

Notice the rationale...

People may not buy books on-line.

Not, it is NONE of their business.