You may have seen the news recently about Amazon removing books from many customer’s Amazon Kindle devices, which had been bought in good faith (ironically, including “1984”!).

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has apologised for the mess:

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”

Good to see Amazon holding their hands up to a poorly-handled situation – fair play. Let’s hope this debacle helps highlight the perils of DRM to Joe Public.

Also, Amazon refund Windows licence fee without a fuss – good to see them happily refund the “Microsoft tax” if you buy a machine which has Windows pre-installed, and you do not accept the licence.