Hmm... Amazon can apologize.
Jul. 24th, 2009 07:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prusikAmazon has apologized for deleting copies of 1984 and Animal Farm off of Kindles in the field. Yes, as it turned out, they didn't have a right to sell those editions of those books. Normally, bookstores simply stop selling those editions . The damage is done. No need to compound it by metaphorically going into people's houses and taking them from their bookshelves.
Good for Amazon for recognizing that they handled the situation badly. It's unequivocally clear that this won't happen again.
Now, if only I were so certain that they've put safeguards in place such that they won't accidentally tag all books with homosexual content as "adult" and make them near impossible to search for again. Yes, I know. They hadn't intend to do that. That actually makes it even more important for them to acknowledge that they hurt people and to let us know that that safeguards are in place. Otherwise, it could happen again. An unfixed bug recurs.
I guess is the interesting question is how Amazon would have reacted if they had accidentally deleted those books due to a "glitch." i.e., is the difference here accident vs. intentional, or is the difference the composition of the aggrieved party?
Good for Amazon for recognizing that they handled the situation badly. It's unequivocally clear that this won't happen again.
Now, if only I were so certain that they've put safeguards in place such that they won't accidentally tag all books with homosexual content as "adult" and make them near impossible to search for again. Yes, I know. They hadn't intend to do that. That actually makes it even more important for them to acknowledge that they hurt people and to let us know that that safeguards are in place. Otherwise, it could happen again. An unfixed bug recurs.
I guess is the interesting question is how Amazon would have reacted if they had accidentally deleted those books due to a "glitch." i.e., is the difference here accident vs. intentional, or is the difference the composition of the aggrieved party?
