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MIAMI - A woman sued Amazon.com on Friday, accusing it of selling a book of photographs of half-naked underaged girls, including a cover picture of her at age 10.
Thais Cardoso Almeida of Miami sued the online bookseller in Circuit Court, claiming it used her photograph without her permission, exploited her image and invaded her privacy.
Amazon.com removed the book, Anjos Priobidos, or "Forbidden Angels," from its Web site before the suit was filed, said company spokeswoman Patty Smith. She said she couldn't comment on the case or why the book was removed.
Almeida's attorneys did not return phone messages Friday.
According to the lawsuit, Almeida was living in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1991 when her mother agreed to let a fashion photographer take her picture for a series of artistic photos of young girls. Her mother signed a release allowing the photo to be published in a limited release to be sold only on an art gallery's opening night.
Instead, the picture was published inside a book called "Forbidden Angels." About 200 copies were sold at the opening and the rest were sized by police as child pornography. The photographer and his publisher were acquitted of child porn charges in 1993.
Almeida and her mother moved to Miami to escape the attention from the book, which has since become a child erotica collectors' item.
In 2002, Almeida learned that another edition of the book was published with her picture on the cover and a purported endorsement from the then-10-year-old and statements from her parents.