Amazon Has a Successful E-Learning Experience in E-Publishing
I love my Kindle and Amazon.com, but several weeks ago Amazon had a knucklehead moment which I am happy to report they have now corrected.
Several weeks ago, Amazon deleted a version of the George Orwell book, 1984, from all Kindles that had purchased it. The version was not an authorized and properly licensed edition of the copyright protected book. Many Kindle owners felt this deletion was an invasion of their property rights.
The obvious solution to the problem would have been for Amazon to make an arrangement with the copyright holder and or legitimate publisher to compensate the right holders for the unauthorized sales on a one time basis. Presumably most authors and publishers would like to have a good relationship with Amazon, and I am guessing would make some arrangement with Amazon to authorize these sales in exchange for appropriate compensation.
Unfortunately, Amazon instead decided to make its mistake its customer's problem instead of Amazon's problem. Now, however, Amazon has figured it out and have given the book back to the customers. Yesterday, Amazon e-mailed customers whose books were deleted and offered the customers a free copy of the book they lost or the option of a $30 gift certificate or check. It looks like Amazon has used this incident as a learning opportunity, and I commend them for it.
The offer included an apology from Jeff Bezos as follows. See also blog entry from September 4, 2009 on CNN entitled, " Amazon Returns Deleted Kindle Books."
Hello,
On July 23, 2009, Jeff Bezos, our Founder and CEO, made the following apology to our customers:
“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”As you were one of the customers impacted by the removal of [title] from your Kindle device in July of this year, we would like to offer you the option to have us re-deliver this book to your Kindle along with any annotations you made. You will not be charged for the book. If you do not wish to have us re-deliver the book to your Kindle, you can instead choose to receive an Amazon.com electronic gift certificate or check for $30.
Please email Kindle customer support at kindle-response@amazon.com to indicate your preference. If you prefer to receive a check, please also provide your mailing address.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
The Kindle Team
