July 25, 2009

A frank apology

A few days ago I took a swipe at Amazon's Orwellian attack on illicit ebooks sold to Kindle owners. On Thursday Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, backtracked in a big way by issuing a brief but pointed apology on Amazon's Kindle community forum.

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 BezosFounder
& CEOAmazon.com

Bezos' forthrightness is refreshing, but I'm still suspicious of Amazon's (and others) capabilities. This is a topic worth watching.
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