I get her. I do. But most people aren't honest like her and wouldn't buy a book. That's the issue. I have to really work hard to navigate around those kind of problems (NetGally is almost holy to me). People freak out about e-copies of things. Like I can lend a CD to my friend, but if I send her a file online... HOLY FUCK! I'm EVIL!
If anything comes out of this, it would be great to have some sort of cheap (or dare I say it, free) service of lending books to those outside of the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Most libraries have an Interlibrary Loan system, but of course there are limitations when dealing with international items and library budgets. This is a frustration for a lot of libraries, authors, and readers, and I would love to see an alternative to piracy that would promote libraries. Then again, I can be stupidly optimistic at times, so there you go.
I would love it if there could be some sort of worldwide library service. However, I think implementing such a site would be really difficult since your not only contending with various countries copyright laws but some countries have censorship laws.
Oh definitely...I mean, ideally speaking that would be available. But it's frustrating that libraries don't have more power. Of course I'm biased, but still...
She's not even trying. We have a super simple ILL system here in Sweden, I guarantee Norway does too, because I know for a fact I can borrow books via my local library from libraries in Norway and Denmark, so they're connected (site and instructions are here, in swedish, but just to show I'm not making this up: http://www.ils.se/fjarrlan.htm - fjärrlån från Norge = ILL from Norway, and a link to their search catalog.
I don't even have to get my librarian to do anything, if I can find the book anywhere in Sweden (and there is an amalgamated library catalog so I can search every library in the country at once!) I can have it sent to me within a few days. If it's from a Uni library, I pay 5-25 kr (USD $1-4ish depending on demand and the waitlist), otherwise it's free, and they'll often mail it straight to my house if I ask super nice! And I live in a really REALLY small town - population 1200. On top of that, any book that's been published as an e-book in swedish, is just about guaranteed to be in the e-loan service so I can just read it right away.
Furthermore, there are four universities within an hour of me, three of them world class, and all three of them will give you a library card if you ask them super nicely. I know this, cos I have cards for three of them. And with a library card, I can use their e-book service, and since at least Stockholm and Uppsala Universities are subscribed to pretty much entire catalogs of everything everywhere because both have huge humanities programs, I can generally find a metric crapton (yes, technical measure there) of leisure fiction too.
Suffice to say, if I decide I want to read a book, unless it's so brand new it's only out in the US in hardcover, there's a pretty good chance I can find it within a couple of weeks, if I really try. Check it out for yourselves, http://libris.kb.se (you can search in english)
@Krazykiwi, thanks for the info. I was wondering how the library systems worked over in Norway and if that might've been a factor. Also, while I know that there are some countries that don't have them-bookstores are an excellent place to browse. You can flip through the end there legally before you decide to buy or not.
I just... I don't know what to say... Like some of the comments, I see both sides as well. So.... going to keep my mouth shut about this. HOWEVER, Lauren's comment saying how Carina is a "supposed book blogger" makes me shake my head. I like Lauren, but fucking honestly? What is her take on what a book blogger should be?
I don't even have to get my librarian to do anything, if I can find the book anywhere in Sweden (and there is an amalgamated library catalog so I can search every library in the country at once!) I can have it sent to me within a few days. If it's from a Uni library, I pay 5-25 kr (USD $1-4ish depending on demand and the waitlist), otherwise it's free, and they'll often mail it straight to my house if I ask super nice! And I live in a really REALLY small town - population 1200. On top of that, any book that's been published as an e-book in swedish, is just about guaranteed to be in the e-loan service so I can just read it right away.
Furthermore, there are four universities within an hour of me, three of them world class, and all three of them will give you a library card if you ask them super nicely. I know this, cos I have cards for three of them. And with a library card, I can use their e-book service, and since at least Stockholm and Uppsala Universities are subscribed to pretty much entire catalogs of everything everywhere because both have huge humanities programs, I can generally find a metric crapton (yes, technical measure there) of leisure fiction too.
Suffice to say, if I decide I want to read a book, unless it's so brand new it's only out in the US in hardcover, there's a pretty good chance I can find it within a couple of weeks, if I really try. Check it out for yourselves, http://libris.kb.se (you can search in english)