Amazon.com invited some unflattering literary analogies earlier this summer when it remotely erased unlicensed versions of two George Orwell novels from its customers’ Kindle reading devices.
Jeffrey Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, apologized to customers for the deletions in July. And late on Thursday, the company tried to put the incident behind it, offering to deliver new copies of 1984 and Animal Farm at no charge to affected customers.
Amazon said in an e-mail to those customers that if they chose to have their digital copies restored, they would be able to see any digital annotations they had made. Those who do not want the books are eligible for an Amazon gift certificate or a check for US$30, the company said.
Bezos described Amazon’s actions as “stupid, thoughtless and painfully out of line with our principles.”
The troubles began when the novels were added to the Kindle’s online store by an outside company that did not have rights to them. After the rights holder alerted Amazon, it removed the unauthorized versions from its systems and from customers’ devices, distributing refunds.
But neither the refunds nor the subsequent apology were enough for some critics, who said the incident underscored the depth of the restrictions built into the Kindle. Digital books for the Kindle are sold with so-called digital rights management software, which allows Amazon to maintain strict control over the copies of electronic books on its reader and prevents other companies from selling books for the device.
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