All for One, and One for All

(donning feathered hat)
(unsheathing pen)

Ladies and Gentlemen, I beg your pardon for this bit of unpleasantness, but some things should not go unchallenged...

Madame, as a duly sworn Defender of Knowledge, I really must insist that you unhand that stolen library book. I hate to have to draw pen on you, but as you have failed to listen to my spoken words, I'm afraid you leave me no choice. Your possession of that purloined book is an affront to our Right to Knowledge and I mean to liberate that book and set an example that will discourage others from committing similar misdeeds.

Ah! You thought I was going to accuse you of theft. A wicked thing, theft, but that is not the aspect of your action that galls me most. I see you are puzzled. It's understandable; few have heard of the Right to Knowledge. Allow me...

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know..." - John Adams, A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765)

While this may seem like a trivial statement to you, I assure you that the right to knowledge is recognized as a critical aspect in ensuring and preserving other universal human rights.

Libraries are a sacred trust between people to ensure and enhance this right to knowledge. We fund them, and we use them, though perhaps not in equal portion. We work together to create a collection of knowledge greater than that which most of us could possess on our own, and this collection is governed by the principle All for One, and One for All. All of the material in the collection is available for any one user, and any one piece of knowledge is available for all users.

Madame, your actions violate that sacred trust. I am not persuaded to stand down by your passion for this tome. Truly, it is a wonderful book. But that only makes its loss to the collective that much more painful. Nor I am persuaded to back down from my condemnation of your action by your protests that the you paid for the book after declaring it 'lost'. Many such 'lost' items are never replaced - indeed, cannot be replaced - because they are out of print. Which is, no doubt, why you did not simply find a copy elsewhere and purchase it.

Having been thwarted more than once in my own quest for knowledge by the 'lost' status of similarly scarce items, I am particularly prone to reacting harshly to the joy you evince in your possession of this particular volume. Perhaps I am also remembering of all the times that I was similarly tempted by an enticing find, but refrained. And so I am not without some measure of sympathy. I believe that you really do find inspiration and joy in that illicitly-acquired opus, and that you want to share that inspiration. But I cannot conclude that you do service to this receptacle of knowledge, its contents, or the Right to Knowledge, above and beyond what would have been accomplished by letting it remain freely accessible to other library patrons.

And now, again, I really must insist that you unhand that book and return it to its rightful place.

All for One, but more importantly, One for All!