Amazon rights a wrong

Back in July, Amazon was starting to look like the gang who couldn’t shoot straight.

Kindle customers who had bought a copy of “1984” found the book deleted from their machine with no explanation. While it was later learned the publisher who uploaded the book did not have the appropriate rights, it set a scary precedent – that the company could ‘unsell’ something that you had legally bought.

Now Amazon is realizing what a colossal screw-up it made, calling it “stupid” and “thoughtless”. Better late than never, I suppose.

People affected by the action will receive a copy of “1984” for the Kindle (along with any annotations they made) or a $30 check or credit for Amazon products.

Gizmodo has the complete text of the note the company sent affected customers:

Hello,
On July 23, 2009, Jeff Bezos, our Founder and CEO, made the following apology to our customers:
“This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.