🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <GUMBY.91Jan31091900@Cygnus.COM> gumby@Cygnus.COM (David Vinayak Wallace) writes:
>Most people don't seem to mind that their town has a public library.
>Nobody seems to complain and say "well I want to have a
>meeting/concert/whatever in this nice big library here -- why should
>the librarians object?"  Or how about "why won't they let me keep
>books as long as I want?"

Flawed analogy.  Public libraries do not attempt to control what I do with,
say, a book I write using their resources (e.g., using an encyclopedia
contained within the library).

And, yes, some people *do* complaing about why libraries do not let them
keep the books as long as they want.  The appropriate response is that *all*
people who pay taxes have the right to use the book, and permitting any
single person to keep a book indefinitely would deny them *their* right.
(Incidently, at least one public library I have dealt with would only apply
late-fee charges if another person requested the book; otherwise, they
didn't care, and hoped you enjoyed the book.)

-- 
-----------------+
Sean Eric Fagan  | "*Never* knock on Death's door:  ring the bell and 
sef@sco.COM      |   run away!  Death hates that!"
uunet!sco!sef    |     -- Dr. Mike Stratford (Matt Frewer, "Doctor, Doctor")
(408) 458-1422   | Any opinions expressed are my own, not my employers'.