If the manufacturer sells the calculator, the user should be allowed to open it up and copy how it works because the "user" bought the damn thing and can do with it what he chooses.
If the user wants to scan the calculator with some fancy techno-gadget and share his findings thats his prerogative as the owner of the calculator.
If a third party assults the user and scans the calculator w/o his will... well the simple necessity of possessing the calculator to scan it is theft. However the theft is on the buyer, not the manufacturer.
If you invested your life savings as stock in a company, and the CEO did stupids that resulted in a rapid shrinkage of your life savings, you'd want to lynch him, wouldn't you?
If you wrote software that you intended to sell to a client, and somebody else stole the source by cracking your computer and selling it to your client at a greatly reduced cost, you'd want blood, wouldn't you?
If you bought a shiny new car, and six months later, a dirty congress-critter conspired with the evil car company CEOs to make gasoline illegal in favor of diesel, you'd be damned pissed, wouldn't you?
In all these cases, things of value to you were devalued by acts of others. In all these cases, you still hold the "thing" in question containing the value that was stolen from you. You still have the stock from the company, you still have the source code on your computer, and you still have a (worthless) car. And yet, you've still been robbed.
Yes I've been robbed, but not of the things you claim.
Stock Broker: I have been robbed of the service of which I paid him. Sure I still have the stocks, but I do not have the expertise that I gave him money for.
Software: Sure I still have the software, but I have been violated because of a break and enter and of corporate espionage. My competition not only has my software, but they have my future business plans as well.
Car: I still have the car, but I have been robbed of the ability to drive it, and I have been robbed of an effective government to which I pay tax too. I am allowed to assume that my government officials will not conspire against me for corporate greed.
As a copyright holder, copyright infringement is analogous to all of these acts. You still have your original, but the value of that original has been taken from you. Whether you call it "theft" or "piracy" or "copyright infringement" doesn't change the underlying fact. You are still the loser.
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I would buy a hell of a lot of music off iTunes if the album was only a buck. Id happily pay $2 for all the album artwork and extras.
Sure an artist can live off $0.10 for each sale of a song
Lets say that in this model the artist releases an album of 10 songs that goes gold in 1 year.
Thats 500,000 x 10 * .10 = $500,000
Thats a LOT OF FUCKING MONEY and I am sure that anyone can live nicely off $500,000/year in income
This also does not cover revenue from endorsements or from concerts.
Now if you tell me to think of the little guy that doesn't go gold... well hes not getting rich with todays version of the music industry either!!!.
If the manufacturer sells the calculator, the user should be allowed to open it up and copy how it works because the "user" bought the damn thing and can do with it what he chooses.
If the user wants to scan the calculator with some fancy techno-gadget and share his findings thats his prerogative as the owner of the calculator.
If a third party assults the user and scans the calculator w/o his will... well the simple necessity of possessing the calculator to scan it is theft. However the theft is on the buyer, not the manufacturer.
If you invested your life savings as stock in a company, and the CEO did stupids that resulted in a rapid shrinkage of your life savings, you'd want to lynch him, wouldn't you?
If you wrote software that you intended to sell to a client, and somebody else stole the source by cracking your computer and selling it to your client at a greatly reduced cost, you'd want blood, wouldn't you?
If you bought a shiny new car, and six months later, a dirty congress-critter conspired with the evil car company CEOs to make gasoline illegal in favor of diesel, you'd be damned pissed, wouldn't you?
In all these cases, things of value to you were devalued by acts of others. In all these cases, you still hold the "thing" in question containing the value that was stolen from you. You still have the stock from the company, you still have the source code on your computer, and you still have a (worthless) car. And yet, you've still been robbed.
Yes I've been robbed, but not of the things you claim.
Stock Broker: I have been robbed of the service of which I paid him. Sure I still have the stocks, but I do not have the expertise that I gave him money for.
Software: Sure I still have the software, but I have been violated because of a break and enter and of corporate espionage. My competition not only has my software, but they have my future business plans as well.
Car: I still have the car, but I have been robbed of the ability to drive it, and I have been robbed of an effective government to which I pay tax too. I am allowed to assume that my government officials will not conspire against me for corporate greed.
As a copyright holder, copyright infringement is analogous to all of these acts. You still have your original, but the value of that original has been taken from you. Whether you call it "theft" or "piracy" or "copyright infringement" doesn't change the underlying fact. You are still the loser.
No its different, your analogy is flawed.
You can get cells with their own special USB connectors (like iPod/iPhones). You can get cells with micro USB, you can get cell phones with mini-USB.
You can get cells with 2.5mm headphones, you can get some with 3.5mm headphones.
Its all rather annoying.