Amazon founder Jeff Bezos apologized Thursday for its remote-deletion of illegally sold books, including George Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm," on its Kindle e-book reader.
In a post on Amazon's Kindle Community forum, Bezos wrote:
"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."
Amazon has received blistering criticism for the move, which removed purchased files from Kindles while refunding the purchase price to a customer's account. The books in question were offered for sale by an Amazon publishing partner that did not have the rights to distribute them in the United States.
