Amazon attempts to make good with customers who lost ’1984′
It appears that major online retailer Amazon.com is finally trying to make amends with the Kindle users that lost copies of George Orwell’s 1984 back in July, but will it be enough to restore the faith of users?
Back in July of this year, owners of the popular Amazon ebook reader, the Kindle, awoke to find that copies of two books by George Orwell, 1984 and Animal Farm, had been deleted from their devices, and a credit for their purchases had been applied to their accounts. Not only was this a shock to those that had purchased the books, but it raised many discussions around the Internet about who really owns digital content, and could this possibly happen with other devices in the future.
The whole issue arose when it was discovered that the person who had uploaded the books to the Kindle store did not have permission to do so. The current copyright holder of both books demanded that the books be removed from the store, and all sold copies to be returned, or in this case, deleted. This raised many questions of who truly owns media in this new digital age, but until that impossible question is settled, Amazon vowed to not take this action again.
The problem was that the public relations nightmare dragged on even further once a high school student filed a lawsuit against the company for destroying his summer homework by deleting the book. After that things seemed to quiet down some, but according to The Wall Street Journal, customers impacted by the deletion have suddenly received the following email:
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.
With deep apology to our customers,
Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Amazon.com”As you were one of the customers impacted by the removal of “Nineteen Eighty-Four” from your Kindle device in July of this year, we would like to offer you the option to have us re-deliver this book to your Kindle along with any annotations you made. You will not be charged for the book. If you do not wish to have us re-deliver the book to your Kindle, you can instead choose to receive an Amazon.com electronic gift certificate or check for $30.
Please email Kindle customer support at kindle-response@amazon.com to indicate your preference. If you prefer to receive a check, please also provide your mailing address.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
The Kindle Team
There has been no comment as to why Amazon can suddenly redeliver the book, and there is also no word as to why all of a sudden Amazon is looking to make good on this situation, but they are trying.
The questions raised by this situation continue to linger and probably will for some time, but at least something is being done to try to repair this current PR nightmare.
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