14 DAY TRIAL // Amazon set the media, bloggers and many vocal users ablaze in July, when it remotely deleted copies of George Orwell's 1984, along with other e-books, which were illegally put on the company's store, from its Kindle devices. After the incident and the public outcry, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos himself apologized for the matter. By this point, most people have generally forgotten the matter, but Amazon is still trying to make amends and is offering to restore the deleted copy, along with any annotations the users may have had or give them a $30 Amazon gift certificate.
“As you were one of the customers impacted by the removal of 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' 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,” an email sent to the ones affected reads.
At the time, Amazon managed to raise a lot of concerns over how much control a company should have over the virtual goods it sold and what exactly ownership meant in a world where a company could take back, without your consent or even knowledge, things you believed were yours. The reason behind the removal was valid, the publisher that made the copies available in the Kindle store had no license to sell these books, so Amazon took action to remove them from the store, but also from the ones who had purchased them, while also refunding the users affected.
After receiving a fair amount of criticism, Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, issued a public apology, calling the move “stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles.” Apparently, the company now believes that this wasn't enough and has decided to replace the book with another copy or give users the option to receive a gift certificate. A recent, class-action lawsuit filed by a high-school student who lost his summer homework because of the incident may not be directly responsible for this latest development, but it must have been taken into consideration.