The old Register of Copyrights snuck a $25M fake line-item into the budget

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/04/05/just-a-placeholder.html

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Drop in the bucket. I hear they’re stocking up on battleships because they were decisive in WWI.

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The action takes place starting at 1:27:00.

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$25 million? Isn’t that four weekends of golf for the Duffer in Chief?

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Cory,
You’ve summarized the first sentence of this article in a weird way.
It is the copyright office that blew money on a computer system:

incompetence and waste at the Copyright Office. They had officially asked for $1.9 million on a technology modernization program, then spent $11.6 million on it without telling anyone about the ever-growing money pit,

So saying that “the Library” blew the money when it’s the head of the Copyright Office, a sub part of the Library, that’s the subject of the article seems to miss the mark.

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it was just in case another government agency stuck the same line in their budgets then the register would be able to prove a copyright violation.

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Good idea! I’m going to put the same line in last year’s taxes and then claim copyright violation and sue!

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“A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you’re talking real money.” ~ Everett Dirksen [apocryphal (and probably apocalyptic, but strangely not apoplectic)]

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see right here https://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-founder-elizabeth-holmes-owes-about-25-million-to-blood-testing-startup-1491435009 it turns out Theranos also ripped of the register of copyrights. This was in fact a brilliant scheme to get rid of the need for a budget at all! (must have foreseen Trump)

Hit it on the head. Thanks!

Oh, you sweet summer child. That’s the Library’s black budget. How do you think they pay for wet work? Mini-subs? Covert exfiltration under fire?

What I’m saying is, don’t mess with librarians.

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