[Infowarrior] - Feds Cancel Amazon Customer ID Request

[Richard Forno]

Feds Cancel Amazon Customer ID Request
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Nov 27, 3:58 PM (ET)

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071127/D8T68B4O1.html

By RYAN J. FOLEY

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 (AP) - Federal prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking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.

Seattle-based Amazon said in court documents it hopes Crocker's decision
will make it more difficult for prosecutors to obtain records involving book
purchases. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil said Tuesday he doubted
the ruling would hamper legitimate investigations.

Crocker - who unsealed documents detailing the showdown against prosecutors'
wishes - said he believed prosecutors were seeking the information for a
legitimate purpose. But he said First Amendment concerns were justified and
outweighed the subpoena's law enforcement purpose.

"The subpoena is troubling because it permits the government to peek into
the reading habits of specific individuals without their knowledge or
permission," Crocker wrote. "It is an unsettling and un-American scenario to
envision federal agents nosing through the reading lists of law-abiding
citizens while hunting for evidence against somebody else."

Federal prosecutors issued the subpoena last year as part of a grand jury
investigation into a former Madison official who was a prolific seller of
used books on Amazon.com. They were looking for buyers who could be
witnesses in the case.

The official, Robert D'Angelo, was indicted last month on fraud, money
laundering and tax evasion charges. Prosecutors said he ran a used book
business out of his city office and did not report the income. He has
pleaded not guilty.

D'Angelo sold books through the Amazon Marketplace feature, and buyers paid
Amazon, which took a commission.

"We didn't care about the content of what anybody read. We just wanted to
know what these business transactions were," prosecutor Vaudreuil said
Tuesday. "These were simply business records we were seeking to prove the
case of fraud and tax crimes against Mr. D'Angelo."

The initial subpoena sought records of 24,000 transactions dating back to
1999. The company turned over many records but refused to identify the book
buyers, citing their First Amendment right to keep their reading choices
private.

Prosecutors later narrowed the subpoena, asking the company to identify a
sample of 120 customers.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Graber dismissed First Amendment concerns in
an April letter to the company. He said D'Angelo - not Amazon - was the
seller and prosecutors needed proof he sold books online.

Crocker brokered a compromise in which the company would send a letter to
the 24,000 customers describing the investigation and asking them to
voluntarily contact prosecutors if they were interested in testifying.

Prosecutors said they obtained the customer information they needed from one
of D'Angelo's computers they seized early in the investigation. Vaudreuil
said computer analysts initially failed to recover the information.

Still, Crocker scolded prosecutors in July for not looking for alternatives
earlier.

"If the government had been more diligent in looking for workarounds instead
of baring its teeth when Amazon balked, it's probable that this entire First
Amendment showdown could have been avoided," he wrote.

The company asked Crocker to unseal the records after D'Angelo was indicted
last month. Crocker granted the request over the objections of federal
prosecutors, who wanted them kept secret.

"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.