It is not about mining. That is not their monopoly, their monopoly is on the production of the minerals to usable components. This unfortunately is not easily solved. A full scale production facility takes about a decade to build and about 1 Billion dollars. There was a private investor who was discussing this issue about 5 years ago and was trying to get investors to go in on building a new facility but was unable to get the needed amount of capital.

Your definition of a right is awful. Everything and anything can be taken away from you. You think you have the right to live but then someone can just go over to you and shoot you. Under your definition there are no rights and everything is a privilege. On the other hand, I do agree with the whole "love it or leave it " comment. If you love something enough you fix it when it is being destroyed.

The IRS would consider this to be nothing more than a hobby. They define a business as an entity that is expected to make a profit. This clearly would not be expected to make a profit.

The linked page was a breakdown for the cost per book of a hardcover. There were multiple links on that article that have even more detail on the cost breakdown. As for where they get the information, most large publishers have roughly the same costs. I have had some conversations with some authors and a few small time publishers I know and their opinion is that those numbers are fairly accurate to actual costs. I do believe the articles was more in line to the average selling book and not to the big names authors. To compare Harry Potter to Granny Jem's Guide to Catholic Churches is a bit weird. Advertisement would probably be different but the overall editing costs are probably the same.

There have been multiple studies that show the majority of the cost is not the printing of the actual book but on editing, and advertisement. The printing is an average of about 10% of the cost. Take a look at http://ireaderreview.com/2009/05/03/book-cost-analysis-cost-of-physical-book-publishing/ .

Yes

200kg 1kg = 2.2 pounds 200 x 2.2 = 440 lbs

I am currently converting my chess books into pdfs so that I can travel. I am very wary of all the current ereaders because I do not know if they will be able to: 1.) handle large pdfs 2.) have enough resolution to be able to display diagrams so that they can be read 3.) take notes and be able to fully save the info Yeah this probably does not matter to 99% of the people, but why spend 4-700 bucks on something that does not necessarily fill all the needs.

I teach chess to kids in a couple of afternoon classes as well as private lessons. Less stress and more rewarding.