Federal prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena, which demanded information on the reading habits of thousands of Amazon.com.Inc. customers as part of its case against one man, newly unsealed court records show.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker ruled in June that the customers have a First Amendment right to keep their reading habits from the government. He rejected the Justice Department’s subpoena for details on Amazon’s customers and their purchasing habits.

"The (subpoena's) chilling effect on expressive e-commerce would frost keyboards across America. 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 his order, according to the Associated Press.

The case was part of an investigation into a former Madison official Robert D’Angelo who used to be a prolific seller of used books on Amazon. D’Angelo did no declare the sales of the books on his tax returns, so the FBI searched for witnesses who could say they bought books from him. He was indicted in October on fraud, money laundering and tax evasion charges. He pleaded not guilty.

The subpoena was the FBI’s solution to solve the case. They asked Amazon to provide 24,000 names, addresses and book information dating back to 1999, but the website did not agree.

Later prosecutors reviewed their asking, saying that details of 120 customers would provide enough information for the case.

Amazon did not agree second time either and cited the First Amendment right.

"When we don 't know what the government wants the information for and we have a doubt whether it violates privacy or First Amendment rights, typically we will dialog with the government and try to understand what their perspective is or we'll make a motion and have a judge decide whether the government has any need for the information," David Zapolsky, vice president of litigation for Amazon told the Wisconson State Journal.

If the Wisconsin subpoena had been directed at a credit card company or bank, the customer records would probably have been handed over without any argue. Booksellers and libraries, on the other hand, benefit from the First Amendment protections under the U.S. law that can protect their privacy from police’s demands.