For your own material, you might want to download Calibre. You can convert files on it, store them on your computer, and read them on Calibre. And they don’t steal them from you. LOL

The real crime is that our governments have consistently allowed purveyors of digital media and devices to deliberately mislead the public by using the word “buy” when they mean “license.”. A license is generally more restrictive then a rental, because the licensee needs to follow the rules set by the licensor. When you license something, you are purchasing the right to use it in a particular way, but you are not buying the thing… in this case the eBook.

Licenses, like copyright, used to be contracts between companies. Ordinary people didn’t need to worry about these things. Licensing is a perfectly reasonable transaction, but only if both parties understand what they are doing. And in today’s digital world, we don’t

The licensee (in this case the reader) pays for the privilege of using the thing (in this case both the e-book *and* the Kindle) in ways allowed by the Licensor, (in this case, Amazon). If the licensee fails to abide by the terms of the “contact” ~ also known as “Terms of Service” (TOS) or “End User License Agreement” (EULA) ~ they’ve broken the contract, so it is no longer valid. This is why Amazon can legally reach into the reader’s device and remove the book, or the account.

DRM is “Digital Restrictions Management” which is the software that allows the company to enforce the terms of the agreement. When they unilaterally determine the terms of the agreement including the power to unilaterally alter the agreement any time they like without even telling readers, it’s rather like doing business with Darth Vader. Any device that plugs into the Internet is vulnerable to any company doing such a thing. Even if you back up your ebooks on another device, it is possible they may at some point be able to remove those too.

If self publishing authors wish to protect our readers from the whims of an Amazon, we can do so by:

(a) choosing an appropriate Creative Commons License for our e-books.
(b) choosing to publish DRM free ebooks,
(c) providing an alternate place where our readers can download a DRM free epub version if our books … perhaps on our own website or a 3rd party site like eBook.bike or Smashwords.