Amazon Forced to Own Up to “Orwellian” Mistake

In 2009, Kindle users were furious when they discovered e-Books including George Orwell’s 1984 were removed from their Kindles without notice. Amazon eventually explained that the deleted copies were improperly published in violation of copyright law and Amazon’s own licensing agreements, but users were still outraged that Amazon “corrected” the issue in a way that “felt a bit like theft.” The massive outcry over the “Orwellian” approach to addressing the problem forced Amazon to change its policy and promise that it would not recall even unauthorized copies in the future.