Amazon has been getting grief since they refunded money and then deleted copies of George Orwell’s 1984 on customers Kindle electronic book readers. The company they had bought 1984 from didn’t have the rights to sell it. But some customers were mad that Amazon could just delete stuff they had bought.
I wasn’t all up in arms about it. I did think Amazon could have just paid the rightful owner for the sales – simple and everybody wins. Instead they deleted them. Ouch!
Jeff Bezo’s mans up this morning:
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
Good job Jeff! Maybe “actually sorry” apologies will catch on. But somehow… I doubt it.
July 24th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Maybe Obama will learn from this and offer a heartfelt apology to Sgt. Crowley, the Cambridge PD and police officers in general.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:19 am
unlikely.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
This is apparenty what passes for an apology, if you aren’t apologizing to other countries for the evils of the US:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Friday he should have chosen his words more carefully when he said police “acted stupidly” in arresting a prominent black Harvard scholar, touching off a debate over race.
Obama made his comments after talking on the telephone to Sgt. James Crowley, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, police officer who made the arrest, and discussing inviting Crowley and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates to the White House for a beer.
“Because this has been ratcheting up and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up, I wanted to make clear in my choice of words I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley specifically,” Obama said. “And I could have calibrated those words differently.”
July 24th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
How about “I was the one who acted stupidly and I apologize”. That would have gotten him some kudos.
His narcissism is showing through.
July 24th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
I would say its Clintonesque, but that would be doing Clinton a disservice. He was a buffoon, but he had more of a political ear than to piss off the cops for no good reason.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
I received my much-anticipated Kindle 2 on Wednesday. Even though I got home at 1 am from a work-related trip, I just had to turn it on and play with it! By morning, I had downloaded my first book. By lunch, I had all my co-workers huddled around it, drooling over it. By dinner, I was in trouble – I downloaded a book for my 11-year old. By 7 pm, I was empty-handed and my daughter was devouring her book.
We’ve worked out a compromise, but you know what, the Kindle is PERFECT for young readers. She loves the dictionary feature and it really makes her excited to look up the new words (I think she skips that part in reading a “regular book.” In addition, if there’s a word that is hard to pronounce she can turn on the speech feature – it’s not perfect, but it really helps.
The Kindle is going to be a mainstay in my purse (LOVE the size and LOVE the cover). My co-workers with high schoolers are thinking seriously about investing in the Kindle for the dictionary and highlighting features alone – it’ll be a super tool for them to use now (and in college) when writing papers is an everyday occurrence. Some of my co-workers are also considering it for their spouses who “book club” – the “clippings” feature is perfect for recording thoughts to take to book club.
Me, I’m a recreational reader and a busy mom who is going to use the Kindle to help make it easier to find time for reading – a book will be at the ready at all times!
December 13th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Hi Minh – we have 4 now. My daughter read 3 books on it this weekend.