"Ich bin leid" is wrong. "Es tut mir leid" is correct. The difference is, I suppose, that "Ich bin leid" is a literal translation of "I am sorry", and literal translations often don't work.

Again, dative is your friend David. :P Es tut mir leid. Ich mir mich du dir dich Ihr euch euch Wir uns uns Sie Ihnen Sie sie ihnen sie I think if you think about it, Ich bin leid, I am sorrow. It sort of sounds funny. We are used to saying I am sorry. But really, we are not sorry, we are in a state of sorrow, or being given sorrow from a situation or within through conflict. It would make more sense to say that it does me sorrow. Es tut mir leid. This goes on the same principle... I am cold. ( if you were cold you would be dead/ or a jerk), Mir ist kalt. It is cold to me. When a persons body temperature reaches cold, they are dead. So, to me, English makes less sense. Viel Glück mein Freund!