A book, or a memoir?

Talk about splitting hairs! A family has settled a lawsuit against Augusten Burroughs ("Running with Scissors") and his publisher. The family claims defamation and invasion of privacy resulted from the book's publication. So Burroughs and the publisher agreed to call it a "book," not a "memoir." WTF? What's the difference? So now a "book" implies that it's not true? In future editions, Burroughs has to say that the family's recollection of events is different from his own. Well, I know for a fact that my recollection of events of my childhood is different than my sister's or brother's. Can't everyone say this? No one remembers an event in the exact same way. A memoir should stay true to the emotional truth, and the writer should write about events as he/she remembers them. If Burroughs did that, then there's nothing to apologize for.