Amazon offers to replace Orwell books on Kindles

September 4, 2009 By RACHEL METZ , AP Technology Writer

(AP) -- Amazon.com Inc. is offering free books or $30 to Kindle customers whose copies of the George Orwell novels "1984" and "Animal Farm" were deleted from their electronic reading devices in July.

When Amazon erased the books from Kindles, citing a problem with the rights to the books, the company issued refunds to the buyers. But the episode startled many customers, who didn't know Amazon had the neo-Orwellian ability to erase content that had already been downloaded to their devices.

It prompted an apology from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who said deleting the books from Kindles to address the rights question was "stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles."

In an e-mail sent Thursday to Kindle owners whose books were erased, Amazon offered to redeliver the titles to their e-readers for free, along with any annotations users had made. Or the customers can get a $30 Amazon.com gift certificate or a $30 check - which could be worth much more than two Kindle books, because many of them cost $10 or less.

When Amazon deleted the books, it said they had been added to its catalog by a third party that did not have rights to the books.

Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener said Friday the company now has the proper rights to distribute the Orwell .

©2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Filter


Move the slider to adjust rank threshold, so that you can hide some of the comments.


Display comments: newest first

rfw
Sep 04, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
How about an "offer", no, a guarantee that removal of any product purchased for any reader will never be recalled or subtracted from the purchaser's reader. How about changing the software so that this sort of thing NEVERNEVERNEVER happens or could happen again. I will NEVERNEVERNEVER purchase a reader with programs that let anyone erase anything in my personal machine!!!!!
Rank not rated yet
Tags

kindle, amazon com, books
Related Stories
more news
Relevant PhysicsForums posts
  • Need help reading 3-D
    created14 hours ago
  • A way to send and receive wireless data
    created20 hours ago
  • Tabletop Cold Fusion Reactor
    created21 hours ago
  • Calling function with no input argument
    createdFeb 10, 2012
  • Force free body diagram problem on gym equipment
    createdFeb 10, 2012
  • Empirical data regarding shower heads and water
    createdFeb 10, 2012
  • More from Physics Forums - General Engineering

More news stories

Google might launch Drive for cloud storage soon

(PhysOrg.com) -- Google's next big move, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a cloud storage service called Drive. Hardly first to the plate, Google is simply catching up to introducing its cloud reposi ...

Technology / Internet

created 2 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Walney offshore wind farm is world's biggest (for now)

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Walney wind farm on the Irish Sea--characterized by high tides, waves and windy weather--officially opened this week. The farm is treated in the press as a very big deal as the Walney ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created 22 hours ago | popularity 4 / 5 (11) | comments 33 | with audio podcast weblog

Love a click away in Indonesia's Twitter Republic

He was a geeky kid from Yogyakarta, she a glamorous city girl in Jakarta. In a country with one of the world's most vibrant social networking scenes they fell in love on Twitter.

Technology / Internet

created 3 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

GPS court ruling leaves US phone tracking unclear

A US Supreme Court decision requiring a warrant to place a GPS device on the car of a criminal suspect leaves unresolved the bigger issue of police tracking using mobile phones, legal experts say.

Technology / Telecom

created 23 hours ago | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Europeans protest controversial Internet pact

Tens of thousands of people marched in protests in more than a dozen European cities Saturday against a controversial anti-online piracy pact that critics say could curtail Internet freedom.

Technology / Internet

created 19 hours ago | popularity 4.6 / 5 (9) | comments 0


Latin America mining boom clashes with conservation

Latin America is experiencing a mining boom as prices rise fuelled by a hike in global demand, but the region is also being hit by a wave of violent protests, strikes and rallies by environmentalists.

Europe stakes billion-dollar bet on new rocket

A pencil-slim rocket is scheduled to lift into space from South America on Monday, carrying a billion-dollar bet that Europe can grab a juicy slice of the market to place satellites in low orbit.

Study finds that anti-diabetic medication can prevent the long-term effects of maternal obesity

In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting, in Dallas, Texas, researchers will report findings that show that short therapy with the anti-diabetic medication ...

Netflix settlement trims 14 pct off 4Q earnings

(AP) -- Netflix pressed the rewind button on its fourth-quarter earnings after settling allegations that the video subscription service violated a consumer-privacy law.

Navy to begin tests on electromagnetic railgun prototype launcher

The Office of Naval Research (ONR)'s Electromagnetic (EM) Railgun program will take an important step forward in the coming weeks when the first industry railgun prototype launcher is tested at a facility ...

Explained: Sigma

It's a question that arises with virtually every major new finding in science or medicine: What makes a result reliable enough to be taken seriously? The answer has to do with statistical significance -- but ...