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I'm not sure what all of the confusion is about on this apology. Folks talk about the 'greed' of companies trying to make a profit. But I see it as natural as our need to eat and sleep.
I am sure that there is a financial consideration. They are trying to sell more Kindle's and are trying to make a profit on those Kindles. The backlash on their erasure grew much larger than they expected. It, no doubt, gave some folks second thoughts about buying a Kindle. And then, Sony announced an upcoming connected reader. Amazon felt they needed a strong move that would not only make things 'equal', but would even pull them ahead in by showing their generosity. This has nothing to do with reimbursing the injured parties and everything to do with marketing more Kindles, and I applaud them for their strong response.
I am a Kindle owner, and I don't and never did have any problems with Amazon. As an analogy, it would be stupid of me to be upset because I fed a wild animal and it bit me. They act just as I would expect them to.
However, I must say that this apology doesn't really put things even for me. The fact is that they have shown the ability to reach into my device and change existing things. This is an ability that can be used in the future. Even if Amazon doesn't choose to, others certainly might try to exploit that ability. Let's say the government wants to find anyone who has a book that describes how to accomplish terrorist activities. Or J.K. Rowling sues to find out how many Kindle owners have copies of Harry Potter (a book that is not legally available as an ebook).
Taken altogether, I still like my Kindle and I would still recommend it to others. However, all is certainly not perfect with the picture. With this large rebate Amazon has 'promised' not to use this capability again. However, it is tough to put the Genie back in the bottle and only time will tell how others will use the courts to try to exploit this capability.
MLH
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