AfterDawn: News

Amazon will replace Orwell e-books on Kindle, or refund $30

Amazon.com has once again apologized to Kindle owners by e-mail for the controversial removal of George Orwell's classics, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, after customers had paid for the content. Amazon removed the ebooks from customers' Kindles after realizing they were added to the Kindle library by an unauthorized publisher. Most customers already were refunded for the inconvenience.

The refund however, did not take away the irony that Amazon had displayed a strangely Orwellian central control over the content on customers' Kindles. It's probably safe to assume that most customers didn't realize Amazon had such control over their content, even after they have paid for it.



Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos apologized for the incident, describing it as, "stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles." On Thursday, the company contacted affected users and offered to recover the titles to their Kindles for free, or gave an alternative option of a gift certificate worth $30, or a check for the same amount. Those who had both books can claim $60.

The incident not only sparked criticism of Amazon for its post-purchase removal of digital content, but also resulted in a lawsuit and in a petition setup by anti-DRM activists Defective By Design.

Written by: James Delahunty @ 4 Sep 2009 22:11

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• 5 comments

• blueboy09

  Ouch Amazon! When you put yourself in the fire wou'll get burned bad. Amazon's name hopefully won't be tarnished, but it kinda serves them right for not treating their customers in a timely manner. If they didn't expect to get any backlash from this, boy where they wrong. Remember, for every cause there's an effect. It's not wise to stick your hand in the fire over and over again, bc it will look ugly, and thats's exactly what Amazon is dealing with a badly burned hand bc of their arrogance.

  4.9.2009 23:01 #1

• KillerBug

  "stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles."
  
  ...This from an american company that does whatever the Chinese government wants.

  4.9.2009 23:40 #2

• DXR88

  thats why you dump all your kindle files unto your pc and encrypt them.

  5.9.2009 18:05 #3

• cart0181

  Jeff Bezos is a good guy for apologizing like that. By the wording, you can tell he was sincere. It is uncommon for anyone to apologize these days, it's very out of style. It is also very sad. It instantly lowers my opinion of a person who fails to apologize when it is obviously due. Great job Jeff.
  
  What about the guy who lost his notes on the book because of this? I hope he gets more than a $30 check.

  6.9.2009 15:07 #4

• Gnawnivek

  Originally posted by cart0181: Jeff Bezos is a good guy for apologizing like that. By the wording, you can tell he was sincere. It is uncommon for anyone to apologize these days, it's very out of style. It is also very sad. It instantly lowers my opinion of a person who fails to apologize when it is obviously due. Great job Jeff.
  
  What about the guy who lost his notes on the book because of this? I hope he gets more than a $30 check.i think the kid is going to get more than that... Amazon most likely going to settle the case than taking it to court. On the other hand, i should have bought the book too if i know this is going to happen, lol.

  11.9.2009 08:29 #5