Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

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!