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Comment by watty | Hacker News Reader

Amazon isn't intentionally discriminating against your country, they don't have a choice.

I'm well aware of that. And, I don't think it's discrimination to only sign complex licensing deals in only one territory.

I'm just not sure why people in the UK would go for this when the Library already does a fine job of "all you can read".

It's often the case that the books I want to read are not at my local library; either because they don't have them or they are already checked out. This is especially true of e-books. Wilbur[1] doesn't have the greatest selection.

[1] http://wilbor.lib.overdrive.com/826F0311-F3BF-4487-A2D0-CA70...

Luckily, in a democracy, you can address this. Write to your local elected council member (or whoever it is in your part of the world) and ask them what they're going to do about it.

Or, get on the board of your local library.

I haven't been to a Library in probably 20 years, so this is a legitimate question, not being snarky. Can you somehow check out e-books at libraries these days? Some people actually prefer that experience.

Usually you can even do it online without having to go to the library. Go to your local library's website and see if they have anything there.

Yes. Most libraries (in the UK) will let you check out ebooks online. See, for example, http://ebooks.surreycc.gov.uk

A few will let you take your eReader to the physical library and help you put books on there.

They do have a choice - as a huge book store they have a leverage over publishers which they have used with great success.

They CHOOSE not demand their books to be available globally from publishers.

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