Penguin Group publishing has done an about face and reversed its earlier decision to yank its e-books from library distribution and block Kindles from downloading them. It abruptly made the decision last week, resulting in many irate readers and librarians.

 Libraries expressed outrage and frustration, saying they should have been notified in advance, and readers, especially those with Kindles, were not satisfied with Penguin’s explanation, which blamed the decision on vague “security concerns” which were never explained.

Just as abruptly as it removed the books, it restored access, saying in a statement that they were working with Amazon and blamed Overdrive for everything, saying it was the distributor’s fault because they had failed to let the retailer know that part of the agreement they have with Penguin requires retailers to keep Penguin’s titles behind a firewall. However, while past and current titles were restored, the publisher is still refusing to allow new titles to be checked out digitally by library patrons.

It’s not clear how if at all, the firewall requirement will affect Kindle users but the incident as certainly done even more damage to Penguin’s image as far as readers are concerned. They were already held in contempt by many e-book readers due to their insistence on making their ebooks ridiculously overpriced.

If you own a Kindle (or even a Nook), how do you feel about Penguin’s latest actions? Have you stopped buying their ebooks because of the high prices? Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts and opinions!