A few days after a public outcry over Amazon.com, Inc.'s digital book policies, CEO Jeff Bezos personally apologized for the mistake.

Over the weekend, Amazon.com, Inc. incurred the wrath of Kindle users when they remotely deleted unauthorized editions of "1984" and "Animal Farm" that customers had purchased for the e-reader. The company refunded users, but raised a public debate about book ownership and censorship.

Here's the complete text of the apology: "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."