Amazon Offers $30 or Redelivery of 1984
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: Amazon, Kindle, 1984, George, Orwell | Themes: Digital Entertainment
A redelivery or $30, take your pick Kindle-owners.
Amazon has already apologized for the Big Brother moment that saw the company remotely delete copies of 1984 from customers' Kindles back in July However, the company is today offering some compensation for that move.
Yesterday Amazon emailed affected customers and told them that they were willing to redeliver George Orwell's 1984 to their Kindle. Customers who do not wish to have the ebook redelivered can instead opt for a gift certificate for check for $30.
It's not yet clear how this will effect the lawsuit a student filed against Amazon for deleting his copy of the book along with notes he had made for school. Check out the full letter to Kindle customers below (via the Wall Street Journal).
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 “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.
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
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"Nineteen-Eighty-Four" by George Orwell should be pre-installed on all e-readers and mandatory reading material for all high school students. None should be able to get high school diploma without finishing the novel and write an essay about it.
What a rare apology. Really laying it all on the line there. Few companies today take that much blame. I might start shopping there again.
Anyone else wonder why Amazon keeps the annotations you make?
"Nineteen-Eighty-Four" by George Orwell should be pre-installed on all e-readers and mandatory reading material for all high school students. None should be able to get high school diploma without finishing the novel and write an essay about it.
That's the very last thing Obama wants.
What a rare apology. Really laying it all on the line there. Few companies today take that much blame. I might start shopping there again.
Huray for doublethink.
"Nineteen-Eighty-Four" by George Orwell should be pre-installed on all e-readers and mandatory reading material for all high school students. None should be able to get high school diploma without finishing the novel and write an essay about it.
along with "Brave new world".
I can just agree. The books they made us read in high school here were so damn dull and crappy!! And worst of all, filled with child molesting criminals...
Isn't Nineteen Eight Four less than $30? So couldn't you just take the $30 and then buy it again and still have money left over?
So... they removed your copy of the book from YOUR kindle and saved the notes you made on it? Um....
Anyone else wonder why Amazon keeps the annotations you make?
I could see this being a useful feature if your device needed to be replaced for whatever reason, but still something which raises an eyebrow.
They should add to the irony and offer a $19.84 rebate.
I want to see how the students lawsuit turns out, its going to set a precedent one way or the other. And I bet they just removed the kindles ability to read the file and didnt actually delete it from the kindle, hence the annotations should be saved on the kindle not by amazon, less creepy that way.
Hellwig: It's part of our big brother society, corporations call it "compliance", but to make a long story short, nothing gets deleted, ever... When you delete something online, there must be 3 copies of it in 3 different cities, or the CEO gets waterboarded. True story.
Of course, the Amazon customer service desk doesn't have access to it if you need it, it's only for big brother and executive management and any 3rd party data mining companies that it's sold to.
"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever"
-George Orwell "1984"
a wake up call to all you e-books buying folks.
i say no way for me never ever will i own a device like this.
i own over a 1,000 bokoks and pulp magazines that is right i got over 150 vintage 1930 - 1940 era pulps.
what are you going to get out of your digital files ????
"Nineteen-Eighty-Four" by George Orwell should be pre-installed on all e-readers and mandatory reading material for all high school students. None should be able to get high school diploma without finishing the novel and write an essay about it.
I disagree...
Any Novel that contains in the description "A Story" is fictional and really is wasting valuable time to learn facts. Rent the movie @ home on your own time.
""The story follows the life of one seemingly insignificant man, Winston Smith, a civil servant assigned the task of perpetuating the regime's propaganda by falsifying records and political literature. Smith grows disillusioned with his meagre existence and so begins a rebellion against the system that leads to his arrest and torture.""
^ with that said.. It does look like a good book.
people, just don't get devices that allow wireless access on them... that way nobody can delete anything that you already own...
No kindle-like ereader for me...
Anyone else wonder why Amazon keeps the annotations you make?
They are stored on the Kindle itself, not Amazon servers. The Kindle simply re-inputs the notes onto the book.
...how this will **affect** the lawsuit, not effect. Pitiful. Just Pitiful.
As for grieve eschewing all fiction in favor of "renting the movie" - well, where do I begin to comment on such a jaw-dropping suggestion? I'll just say that life is much more rich when one is broadly educated. Anyone who shuns fiction will miss fully half of the humor, insight, and wisdom of the ages that is alluded-to in everyday life. Even more sad, the victims of such a plan aren't equipped even to realize that they have "missed the joke" or "missed the life lesson", because it will fly right over their burger-flipping heads; they become the very citizens that "1984" describes.
The problem with 1984 is that some human spirits are just downright stupid and those will always let out some important information that we, according to them, are not supposed to know. So, yes, it is an important read, but all in all let's not be so alarmist. Like Einstein said: "There are two infinite things: the universe and human stupidity. But I'm still unsure about the first."
I've never paid for a digital book...
I go to the library to pick up books once in a while...
Difference is?
"Nineteen-Eighty-Four" by George Orwell should be pre-installed on all e-readers and mandatory reading material for all high school students. None should be able to get high school diploma without finishing the novel and write an essay about it.
That would encourage independent thought; we can't have that! I mean, what do you think this is, a civilised society? Preposterous! If we do that it would only be a matter of time before schools also start teaching children about finance and other things relevant to the information age, and we definitely wouldn't want that old chap!