I found this beauty on a Wednesday hike. Carried it for a few miles before leaving it in the park for the next stick enthusiast.
Sure, but the company fronted the millions of dollars required to develop the technology. The investment needs to come from somewhere.
That doesn't have to be a private company, though. We need public funding that retains the patent rights, if not just to make the invention free from licensing costs to manufacture.
The insane thing about our current system is that we do have public funding, but private companies wind up with the patent anyway
There are two separate cultures around asking for favors like this.
In one, a person can ask for anything without being considered rude, but they are expected to not react negatively to being told 'no'.
In the other, it is expected that you only ask for something if you're sure the answer will be yes. Asking for something to which you expect a rejection is rude in this culture. Also people tend to react negatively to being told 'no', as they were fully expecting a 'yes'.
I grew up in the latter system, as it is what most of the western world uses. It requires far more social aptitude and ability to pick up on queues. It causes a ton of problems (especially with dating) and is a nightmare for anyone on the autism spectrum.
This is a long way of saying: be careful of who you ask for random favors from. In a customer role it's fine, but it may not go well with friends/family.