There are very few czech things I am proud of. Very few and the list is shortening every year unfortunately. But two definitely stand out.
Our system of basic arts schools: those schools offer music, drawing, theatre, and dance lessons for reasonable prices, thanks to being partially financed by the state or the towns. Yes, they are endangered now, because the teachers really get low wages, but they are awesome and we should do everything to keep them. I can't start to name all the advantages a child gets from learning to play an instrument or participate in a theatre play there, I would keep going for a very long post.
The second thing are
our public libraries. We have the largest number of libraries per capita, as I've read somewhere. And they tend to be of good quality. Unfortunately, they are being closed sometimes, in smaller towns. That is a problem because smaller towns usually have older population, which is less likely to use the internet and ebooks (and piracy) to such an extent. The libraries are doing their best to provide people with high and low literature, non fiction, internet connection, cultural program, even music, arts (you can borrow a painting for a few months in Prague!). Sure, there are some limits to their functioning and some are not tied to funding. But I'd wish people all over the world to have such a network of libraries.
Without the libraries, or with insufficient offer in them, people have an easy choice. Either become pirates or ignorants. The luxury of the third choice "a happy customer of online services" is reserved to people in only a few countries.
Here in Prague, I am so spoiled I can complain about rather minor issues, such as the lack of science books in the Spanish Cervantes library, too few foreign books and outdate language courses in the Municipal Library, an extremely ugly studyroom at my faculty's library, and the bad selection of reference works in the readily displayed bookcases in the beautiful studyroom in the National Library
https://www.nkp.cz/sluzby/dulezite-odka ... b-stud-dej Ok, I have a legitimate complaint: the National Library closes at 10pm and there are only two night study rooms in Prague.
And of course the libraries pay to the authors. The problem are things like a recent demand for the libraries to pay much more for the copying machines. It doesn't matter what you copy, there is a presumption of guilt in the minds of a few huge private companies that basically demand taxes "in the name of the authors" and the state lets them. Really, either make the system more logical, human, and free market, or simply take it away from the private companies (90% is their profit) and let's give the culture taxes to the state. It is all bad enough in principle, but this one change was about to seriously damage our libraries before some last minute changes to the laws.
But I still agree the online access and digitalisation are necessary. It is important to get rid of the stupid geoblocking, and to improve the market with both educational media and entertainment. They need to be accessible both in the technical sense and financial. Not to cut the authors (they would actually profit, if people weren't forced to either pirate or give up on their works), but to streamline and not pay that much to the resellers.
I love paper books. But covering at least some of our needs with ebooks is a must, if we want every person on the planet to have access to education. I can see extremely clearly how much more difficult would getting the books I want be if i moved 150 km away, into the czech mountains. What about people living 500 km away from any bigger city? And we don't even have enough trees to cover all those needs (although we could print a lot more textbooks, if we cut the marketing leaflets out).
We need digital libraries/bookstores/streaming services. Accessible worldwide, comfortable enough to push the piracy aside (I am one of the pirate generation. We are no longer poor teenagers. But the services haven't realised it and simply don't offer enough.). With as little money as possible given to resellers (why should I pay twice as much for the exactly same dvd just because someone put it on a camion?), so that the authors have enough and the customers can pay.
My mom was on the library board when I was little. I basically grew up in a library and I was one of the privileged few who didn't even have to worry about library fines. (My mom was insane about making sure we never took advantage of that privilege.. I think we returned a book late just once or twice ever). I know they can be great places for people. That doesn't make them accessible to everyone. No matter how hard the author asserts his position, it doesn't make library patrons good people who but tons of books, or "pirates" bad people who never pay for what they use (I spend more on books per year than most families spend on food but I still puffy heart love Library Genesis).
Globally, many of us believe that education is a basic human right. How that plays out gets everyone twisted up in a bunch. Divert thousands and millions of dollars from all of us in taxes for public schools and maybe universities ? Sure thing. Track down a 15 year old text book that you could neither afford nor find in print? Viscous pirate.
I know I'm exaggerating.. only slightly though. We already have massive global inequalities in access to education that adding another layer social baracades just really frustrates me.
I wish I didn't have to worry about the library fines. Even if it meant someone was really torturing me to return the thing on time!
Yes, I spend on books more than most people my age (including those with significantly larger income). But I am simply not allowed to buy lots of stuff I want. The choice is either being a pirate, or paying a lot of money and trouble and time for paper copies, or staying within the stupid narrow borders someone else had invented for me ("oh, the swedish books are too expensive for czechs" when I was almost waving my wallet around at the book fair. (and that was a huge reason to give up on Swedish) "people didn't buy French books much, so we got rid of them" "but you only had some kafka translations, Prague guides, and cookbooks, no wonder noone was buying that" "no, people wouldn't want other books either". or "but why do you want a foreign textbook, why don't you get a czech one?" "it sucks, it is outdated, and a torture to read" "but it's czech!")
And you are not exaggerating about tracking down a 15 year old text book! I could name at least four examples right now! Including such a piece of irony like an obligatory textbook (the only one on the planet covering a weirdly composed subject) published by my university but without any reprint despite being impossible to buy a new or a second hand copy, just two or three copies being in the library (and one of those only for consultation in there), and still being obligatory for 150 people a year (all at the same time). The only available option was a horrible set of photos of the pages, which was very dark when printed out. Such a pleasure to hear "yes, it is horrible that the students download pirated pdfs, where are the publishers and authors supposed to get money for new books?" and "no, we are sorry, we get asked about this book a lot but we do not plan to print it again."
I can sympathize with your situation in Alaska since I, too, live far from the mainland US in the even lower population US Territory of the USVI. As we say here, "we have everything you need just not everything you want". One of my other favorite VI sayings is, "if you see something and you like it, buy it... if you really like it buy two of them". You never know here when an item may disappear from the shelves for months or permanently.
Aaaand people in many countries wonder why there is so much urbanisation, why fewer and fewer people want to live in small towns and villages.
And why it is usually the more educated part of the population leaving, leaving the rest to struggle. The internet is the cure to many of the common problems, if only the society finally accepts that people simply don't want to settle for the level of culture "my neighbour plays the violin a bit and my local library has all the 70's bestsellers" anymore. If only we allow the market to make life more pleasant far away from the city. Because why should people settle for "you have everything you need", when they can have "everything they want" much more easily a hundred km (or a few hundred km) away.
Truth be told, even I would be more inclined to stay in the country I have very little in common with, if I could have the real culture easily and comfortably available online without being called a thief. And I am not the only one. It is definitely not just about the money. I would buy what I want, if I was allowed to.
As you were sharing about your mom and books, Ani, I'll add an anecdote of mine. I was 16 when my mom asked "but why do you spend so much in second hand bookstores, why don't you buy some new clothes instead!"
so I am definitely not pirating because I wouldn't be willing to buy my culture and education.
