Both these problems can mostly be solved, at least for technical books, by buying directly from the publisher. I buy technical e-books from oreilly, informit,

Both these problems can mostly be solved, at least for technical books, by buying directly from the publisher. I buy technical e-books from oreilly, informit, springer or nostarchpress. They are more often than not, cheaper than amazon and you can download them in various formats, including but not limited to pdf. Buying books for Kindle feels like you're renting them from Amazon.