Friend,
Did you know that while the RIAA attempts to stop the $4 billion in annual worldwide losses, there is another industry whose losses are nearly ten times that high within this country alone?
I am speaking, of course, of the publishing industry. That’s right. there is a government sanctioned program of stealing money from the mouths of the children of these fine upstanding entrepreneurs. Whole buildings dedicated to theft of intellectual property, and paid for with your tax dollars. I am speaking, of course, of libraries.
Each library purchases one copy of a book--maybe a few more if the bandwidth of a single copy is not sufficient to satiate the thieving fingers of its “members.” They hire staff that will help you search the system, and allow nearly instantaneous access to the information. And then you get a copy for yourself, to use as you want, for a period that is more than sufficient to fully drain the work of all future value to you, and then it is returned for the next person.
“But the founding fathers supported this”, say the liberals. But did they really? As everybody knows, the country was founded on Christian principles, and “Thou Shalt Not Steal” is one of those Christian principles, the liberals are clearly interpreting history in a way that supports their desire to get things for free, rather than really looking at the truth.
Then there is the cry of “Fair Use” But don’t be deceived. Fair use is the courts setting national policy, and is a liberal extreme of the principle that once you’ve bought something, you should be allowed to use it. I go to the hardware store and buy a rake. I use it; my wife uses it; my children use it (though not enough.) This is fair use, and I support it. But my neighbor wants to use it. They want to use it not just now, but every time they want to rake their yards. This isn’t “fair use” it’s using my rake to do his work. Let him get his own rake...he probably won’t return it anyway.
So what is wrong with libraries? Aside from using your tax dollars to fund the buildings, the people and the boxes filled with puppets that your kids play with while you wander around and steal, the library is providing the means for the theft of THIRTY BILLION dollars in intellectual property a year. That’s right, I said THIRTY billion dollars--and that is in the US alone. Ultra-liberal countries like Canada and the UK probably steal even more than we do, though I haven’t done the math for that yet.
So where does this number come from? Solid facts...that’s where. Knowing that there are roughly the equivalent of 12,000 fully functional libraries in the country (plus school libraries, and branches which I haven’t even included.) Assuming each of these libraries permits 250,000 thefts (Sorry, I mean “check outs") per year, that is THREE BILLION Check-outs annually. Assuming a per-item cost of $10, that is 30 BILLION dollars per year in intellectual property going out the doors of these evil institutions.
“But each checkout isn’t a sale” say the ultra-leftwing liberals. Sure they aren’t. Try taking something you don’t intend to use out of a WalMart, and see if “I wouldn’t have bought it if I weren’t stealing it” works for you. I think not.
So keep this in mind, the next time you are looking for something to do on a Saturday afternoon. Rather than supporting this rampant pattern of theft, go to a Waldenbooks, or Barnes and Noble or any fine institution and actually BUY the books you intend to read. You’ll feel better, and God will feel better.
While I take this article in the satirical spirit in which it was written, and I did enjoy reading it immensely, I want to point out that, at least here in Oz and I think also in Britain, authors get annual payments from the government based upon how many libraries their books are in and how often they are borrowed in order to compensate for the fact that people are just borrowing it for free instead of buying it.
Oh no, I’m a book nerd!