Amazon Kindle Flap Prompts Petition

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' apology Thursday for remotely deleting e-books from customers' Kindles wasn't enough to satisfy some customers, who continue to worry that Amazon could abuse its power over their devices.

A Boston non-profit, The Free Software Foundation, plans to present Amazon with a petition asking that Amazon relinquish control of the e-books customers load on Kindles.

The foundation also wants Amazon to reconsider its Digital Rights Management software, which is based on license agreements with the holders of copyrights on e-books. The foundation -- which refers to Amazon's Kindle as "the Swindle" -- has solicited "quick but thoughtful 1-star review(s)" of Amazon's Kindle for the company's Web site.

"Amazon refuses to clarify what exactly their DRM system can do, or how they will or won't use it," the request said. "Deceptive advertising practices like this are currently being looked into by the Federal Trade Commission. Notice that there is no mention or warning of DRM on the Kindle page."

Amazon has said nothing more about its Kindle policies since Bezos' apology last Thursday. A spokeswoman issued essentially the same statement that Amazon issued in mid-July when customers first discovered that the books -- copies of George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 -- had been deleted.

"These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books," she said. "When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers' devices, and refunded customers. We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers' devices in these circumstances."

Meanwhile, customers continue to post comments on Bezos' apology. Some thanked him for his honesty, while others wondered if Amazon should still be doing more.

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