Quote Originally Posted by unixrevolution View Post
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I know that a camera on a shelf not taking pictures is still a camera, but a camera that never gets used might as well not be one. A car that can't start and never moves isn't an automobile, it's car-shaped iron furniture. Cameras that can't take pictures aren't cameras because they don't do what cameras do. Cameras that don't ever take pictures will soon become cameras that can't take pictures.

My dad and I both collect firearms. One of his guns is a never-fired, Nazi-marked Walther P38. It is a gun. It is a perfectly functional, working gun. But since its condition means I can never fire it without destroying what makes it special, it isn't a gun because I can't actually put ammunition through it. It is, functionally, not a gun.
By your logic, the Space Shuttle that they are putting in the Smithsonian is not a Spacecraft, A locomotive at the park for kids to play on is not a train, and so forth. I also used to be a gun collector, and some are just too rare to shoot just so you can "prove" it's a gun. One of the biggest farces being pushed on the American people is what I see when an antique gun is brought to the Pawn Stars, Auction Hunters, and similar TV shows. The supposed "expert" at the pawn shop (though he always has to call in a real expert to give a real appraisal) always says, "Well, this gun will be worth a lot more if it actually works - let's go to the range!" I've seen them trying to shoot old Blunderbuss muskets, and a lot of other rare guns. Many made of 200 year old steel that should not be tested. Every gun collector knows you don't have to shoot a rare Patterson or Dragoon to "prove it works" to some imaginary yahoo that might buy it. But it most assuredly is still a gun.

There are many beautiful or fascinating artifacts from our past that some of us like to preserve, including cameras. Let's not judge the preservationist.