License

The blogosphere is full of commentary on the Amazon deletion of books on the Kindle. I do not remember where I saw it, but someone had some excellent advice: Download all purchases to your computer, copy them to the Kindle via USB (managing the storage yourself), and leave the radio on the Kindle turned off.  That prevents syncing and all downloads stored on a computer are protected (and can be backed up).

That seems like a low tech, simple solution to a not-so-complex situation.

I really don't understand why there's been so much brouhaha over the deletion. The word "sync" is clearly misunderstood by many people.

There is also much confusion over the difference between buying a license to use versus the purchase of a tangible item.  Most of the grumbling about this seems to come from people who don't see any reason to own a book reading device, preferring the tactile experience of printed book. These are people who must not travel much (especially overseas), where it is difficult to carry a dozen or more books to enjoy on vacation. These non-travelers and technical-phobic are not the target market for a Kindle (or related device) so their commentary is superfluous.