[longtermmemmory]

AND they can orwellian alter books for the PC moment de jour.

[Billthedrill]

Yep. I just realized, though, that I am quite in error about local backup if you choose to download the AZW (or MOBI or whatever) files to a local computer, and then manually bring them into the Kindle from there. You can back them up like anything else on your hard drive. What you can't do is suck them off the Kindle directly for backup. At least not on mine.

If you don't want them to get at the machine, turn off Wi-Fi. They could still reach you if they tried hard enough but they most likely won't.

[Billthedrill]

And one more thing - I believe if you use that method the files you’ve downloaded will only work on your specific Kindle.