Is CO liable here? No--as stated, CO won't take responsibility for such equipment as checked luggage, and CO is very up front about this. So the OP shouldn't expect any $$.

But I don't see why everyone is giving the OP a hard time, nor do I see why he/she should not be a bit annoyed. An airline should be able to transport a printer in a cardboard box that's wrapped up reasonably well, without breaking it into 50 pieces. It's not like the printer was inadvertently jostled or bumped or dropped enough that it stopped working---this is a risk one would expect. It sounds like the thing was really trashed, almost deliberately.