WASHINGTON - Amazon.com, which apologized last week for remotely deleting books by George Orwell from its Kindle electronic readers, is now facing a lawsuit over the Big Brother-like move.

The suit was filed Thursday in a US District Court in Seattle, Washington, where Amazon has its headquarters, on behalf of a US high school student whose copy of Orwell's "1984" was zapped from his Kindle.

"With an uncanny knack for irony, Amazon recently remotely deleted any traces of certain electronic copies of George Orwell's '1984' and 'Animal Farm' from customers' Kindles and iPhones, thereby sending these books down Orwell’s so-called 'memory hole,'" the lawsuit said.

Justin Gawronski, the Michigan high school student bringing the suit along with another Kindle user, had made "copious notes" on the version of "1984" he was reading as a summer homework assignment, the suit said.

"After Amazon remotely deleted '1984,' those notes were rendered useless because they no longer referenced the relevant parts of the book," it said.

The suit claims Amazon had not disclosed to Kindle users previously that it had the ability to remotely delete content and asks the court to prevent the online retail giant from doing so in the future.

"Amazon has no more right to delete e-books from consumers' Kindles and iPhones than it does to retrieve from its customers’ homes paper books it sells and ships to consumers," it said.

The suit seeks unspecified damages for Gawronski and other Kindle users whose digital books were erased.

Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos apologized last week for remotely deleting the Orwell books, which had not been authorized for sale by the publisher.

"Our 'solution' to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles," Bezos said. "It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we've received."

Amazon refunded the purchase price of the books to Kindle users.