A Seattle, Wash., prosecutor will not execute a search warrant issued by a Seattle judge to force Amazon.com to turn over the names of customers who purchased a pair of erotic CDs involved in a Cleveland, Ohio, stalking case, reports the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. It was only after Amazon informed the prosecutor via its lawyers that it was prepared to fight the warrant in court that the prosecutor decided not to pursue the matter.
Ohio police had requested the warrant to aid in their investigation of a stalking case in which more than 40 women in the Cleveland area received sexually suggestive materials from Amazon. The search warrant, issued in February, requested the names of all customers who had the two CDs shipped to addresses in 30 northeastern Ohio ZIP codes.
Chris Finan, president of ABFFE, told PW, "We're happy the Seattle prosecutor thought better of executing the warrant. In the end, he did the right thing—the warrant was an egregious fishing expedition and an offense."
This is the fourth such search warrant case in recent years. In 1998, Ken Starr issued a subpoena to Washington, D.C.'s Kramerbooks for records of Monica Lewinsky's purchases. In April 2000, Denver, Colo., a warrant (which is still being contested in court) was issued to search customer records at the Tattered Cover bookstore. Shortly thereafter, a handful of Kansas City Borders superstores also received subpoenas, which were later quashed on First Amendment grounds.
Finan attributes the increase in such cases to the recent realization by police that bookstores track customer data. He told PW, "Police are resourceful people and when they find a new investigative tool, they are going to try and use it. It's not a surprise to me that we've seen it three times between April 2000 and today. In fact, we've had two other booksellers tell us that they've been approached by police for information, and we're aware of one more subpoena."
ABFFE believes that the prosecutor in Seattle may have let the matter drop because of the publicity that would have surrounded a court battle with Amazon. "He may well have thought he had a tiger by the tail and if Amazon fought back, he'd have a landmark case on his hands," said Finan.
