doubleplusundead

July 24, 2009

This is how it's done

In case you somehow missed it, Amazon screwed the pooch by deleting copies of 1984 (oh the yummy irony) off people's Kindles when it was discovered that those copies were illegal. Apparently, someone was selling unlicensed versions. Amazon took it on the chin for just yoinking the copies. I'm actually a bit more sympathetic to Amazon and not just because you'll pry my Kindle out of my cold, dead hands. There's no question the copies were illegal. It's a bit of an open question as to what liability Amazon faced if it didn't attempt to stop the transmission of those works. Don't get me wrong, what Amazon did was stupid. I'm just not ready to jump on the OMG BIG BROTHER bandwagon. It was still wicked stupid though.

Guess what? Jeff Bezos issued an apology today. It's an actual apology too.

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

Now that is how it's done. Wouldn't it be nice if other people did that as well?

For the record, I love my Kindle like pie. Really, it's one of the best tech purchases I've ever made. Everyone should have one.

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