[mutant_matt]

As far as I can tell, they do not place restrictions on how often you can download a title on a particular device. They may restrict the number of devices that you can download a title to different devices, but I've always been able to get around that by going to their device management tools and removing devices that I no longer use.

I read an article where someone discovered that on a per-title basis, there is a download limit. He also was none-too impressed when Amazon told him that this is set by the publisher, and there was nothing they could do about it. It's these types of not-your-device-really-to-control issues, that really get up my nose!

Originally Posted by l_macd

Yes that's sideloading, but I think you are remembering incorrectly. The Kindle only displays a text list of books, sorted either by author, title, or collection (unlike the Kobo & PRS-T1 it doesn't display book covers). For the first two, the titles of all your books are listed individually on the home page. If you sort by collection, the titles of your collections is shown, and you click to open a collection to view the books listed in it (just the same way you would do if it was a folder).

You can create a folder on the Kindle and load books into it, but they'll just show up as individual books on the home page, the folder itself is ignored. They won't appear in a collection unless you add them to the collection (either via the Kindle itself or using the Kindle Collection plug-in for Calibre).

So in short, the Kindle doesn't support folders, but if you use collections to sort your books, it tags your books with whatever collection title to you use, and it makes it look as if they are in folders.

Ok, thanks for that. I am pretty sure I created a folder on the device and then it appeared on the Home screen, but you presumably are correct, that I must have then "moved" the book, using the Kindle interface, "into" that collection.

The only thing I'll add to what BWinmill has said in reply to your other points is that regarding the removal of those books (Animal Farm & 1984) is that although Amazon refunded the money when they deleted them, they did concede that they handled it badly and in future, if something similar was to happen (i.e. the publisher didn't have the right to publish those books and they shouldn't have been sold in the first place), they wouldn't delete books without asking customers permission first, and if you refused, that'd be the end of it.

Except, they *can* do what they like with "your" device, if they so chose, and I don't hand control of devices I paid for, to 3rd parties, wherever possible. I judge individuals, and companies, by how they act, not by what they say. I just don't trust them to protect my best interests (theirs and mine only overlap only a little. IMHO ). That's kind of the point (which is also why I won't buy any Apple products, and others).

Anyway, if you'd prefer to use epub, this is probably all pretty immaterial

Indeed. Of course, now I realise the current lack of "collections" on the Kobo, I'm having second thoughts, so now I'll read up on the plugin stuff, and see if that suits.

Get yourself a Kobo, register it, then just don't the wi-fi on, I assume you can do that?

Apparently so. Also, I think the Linux hacks would be done early on in it's life, and a custon hosts file would "protect" against most of the stuff I would want to keep at bay, just in case!

Thanks for everyone's help and comments, once again,

Cheers,

Matt