This looks to be a case of a bad copy of 1984 being removed from the kindle store, not a major publisher changing their mind. If you read the amazon discussion, this has happened before. Which makes sense. I could self publish a book called 1984 on kindle and just upload an ebook I found somewhere else. If people buy it, and amazon finds out, they probably remove those non legit copies and refund the users.

If you look here, it looks like the book is still available from a major publisher.

Blame the publisher, not Amazon.

The version that was recalled was probably this one: http://www.amazon.com/Nineteen-eighty-four/dp/B002H5GTLU/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1247871615&sr=1-3

It was uploaded by a third party. 1984 is not in the public domain in the USA so it is not legal to resell it. I think that is why Amazon recalled it.

The legal copy of 1984 is still available for the kindle. http://www.amazon.com/Nineteen-Eighty-Four/dp/B002A9JO9W/ref=sr_oe_2_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247861828&sr=1-2