Amazon.com was widely criticized last week for deleting electronic Copies of George Orwell’s novels from its customers’ Kindle readers after it discovered that it had inadvertently sold unauthorized editions of the books.
On Thursday, Amazon’s chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, posted a statement on a customer forum, publicly apologizing for his company’s handling of the situation:

“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.”

The apology came as Amazon reported second-quarter sales on Thursday that disappointed investors, who sent its shares down about 8 percent in after-hours trading.