Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
from the comment-library dept
This week, several of our top comments come in response to publisher Ken Whyte moaning about libraries, starting with our anonymous first place winner for insightful:
Well gee, Mr Whyte, what part of copyright law says I may not loan, give, or sell my books when I am done reading them? Hmm... Was it the First-sale doctrine? Nope, not that. How about 17 US § 107?
Ah, no, I'm wrong. You're Canadian, aren't you? I've got it! You're thinking of the Public Lending Right, instituted in Canada in 1986 (and other years in other nations), allowing authors to license works to libraries. I bet your publishing house sold some books to these libraries, didn't you? Then you're covered! What you complaining about?
And hey, Sutherland House Books was established in 2017, so I'm confident you knew that libraries existed before then. Given all the competition from libraries, I'm surprised you went into business at all!
In second place for insightful, it's Chris Brand pointing out that library books have to be bought:
You have to wonder what percentage of that "public money" that's funding the libraries goes straight to the publishers to buy books. I imagine it's significant.
For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start out with Anonymous Anonymous Coward offering one more thought for the publisher:
Is it possible that Mr. Whytes actual issue is that libraries don't buy many of the books he publishes? Maybe the problem is the books he publishes rather than that libraries exist (and aren't interested in his books).
Next, we've got Bloof summing up the misleading reporting on Nick Sandmann's settlement with the Washington Post:
Misleading was the point. The people who read the post will infer that the kid earned millions and will go on to repeat that as fact until it's accepted as such because it can't be disproven due to NDA's. No doubt the intent is to make independent journalists and smaller outlets think twice before reporting on right wing misbehaviour.
They likely paid him a few thousand to make him go away rather than run up millions in legal fees they'll never recover when they win.
Over on the funny side, our first place winner is another anonymous response to Ken Whyte:
Could you say he has a loathe-hate relationship with libraries?
In second place, it's an anonymous comment about Nick Sandmann's lawyer threatening reporters who comment on the settlement:
He already got paid once by CNN for the serious crime of not doing anything wrong. That $1000 at a time isn't going to just roll in by itself, gotta keep those lawsuits coming!
For editor's choice on the funny side, we start out with an anonymous comment responding to the bizarre claim that the Chinese Communist Party would applaud the protests in Portland:
Yeah, they loooove protests against government wrongdoing and overreach.
And finally, it's Stephen T. Stone with a comment about an all-too-common "standard" for censorship:
“I’ll know it when I see it” is good logic for finding your car in the parking lot of a theme park, but bad logic for determining what speech is legal or illegal.
That's all for this week, folks!
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Finding your car in the parking lot of a theme park
I can vouch for I’ll know it when I see it failing to serve even in car parks.
After years of having a company car, a silver Prius with no identifying markings followed by a white Prius with no identifying markings, my wife was glad to get a vehicle that is a shade of green that appears nowhere else in nature. (We think hers is one of three such vehicles throughout the Sacramento area.)
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Re: Finding your car in the parking lot of a theme park
I love that..
After walking into a mall and wondering around for a few hours, then trying to remember Where you put it, even after all the sections have been lettered/numbered, each row is 1/2 long, and they made Thousands of your Car, in only a few colors. And if its a newer car, and no Paint scratches, no decals in the windows, No Bumps in the body...
You stand outside, wondering WHy the F'ing key dont work.. Then you see the kids carseat in the back, is
in the wrong place, and the backseat os full of trash and toys..
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Re: Re: Finding your car in the parking lot of a theme park
It can get worse.
A company my parents worked for in the 90s bought a fleet of Hyundais when they first came out in the US. They were very cheap compact cars (boxes on wheels, really) and had a very limited number of colors (6 or 8?). To make matters worse, Hyundai went cheap on the door locks with ones that only used the first few pins on the car key (there were no remote key fobs for this fleet). So you could get out to a car that looks like yours, unlock and get in, but then be bewildered when the car key wouldn't work in the ignition. That's usually when it dawns that you parked toward the loading-dock end and this isn't your car.
Yeah, that was a confusing as hell for a lot of people for quite a while. Because they weren't supposed to put bumper-stickers or anything on them that could damage the car, I think people started putting stickers on the windows or just leaving very identifiable stuff in the back window / around the rear-view mirror.
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Re: Finding your car in the parking lot of a theme park
So she bought a Kia, eh? There are more vomit green Souls out there than you would think.
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Re: Re: Finding your car in the parking lot of a theme park
THE BEST Iv seen,...
Is there is a discount on buying BLACK..
And Im my area, and most Dry areas, it gets HOT. And BLACK is terrible. But its a discount.
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Libraries??
With the comments above about then.,.
Would it have been better, to Make Digial books??
Then hook up with the Different services to sell them online threw Amazon, and other book stores??
Save TONS of money insted of creating Billions of books, of paper and ink, when the only ones sold went to the author and his kids. SAVE abit of money and trees. Get access to world wide distribution thats already there, and dont fill up a DUMP with all the extra books.
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Settlements,
Dont you love our PRIVATE system?
Corps do.
If we got rid of the NDA, we could fill a library. Create a book store to sell all of it..
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Mine didn't make the cut
I'm slightly disappointed that this comment didn't make the cut for funny. I was feeling pretty good about it! Oh well, I still have my laurels on which I can rest…
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Re: Mine didn't make the cut
I can testify that actually sitting on actual laurels is very uncomfortable unless you have very heavy pants.
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Re: Mine didn't make the cut
A lot of people seem to get their facts from that German Professor, Otto Maiaß.
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Re: Re: Mine didn't make the cut
I see what you did there. 😉
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Re: Mine didn't make the cut
Truly, that was a lot better than my very short comment which did somehow make the funny list. I was shocked. But then, the straight-man to whom i was responding provides one hell of a set-up.
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