Eliah Kagan wrote:
Anonymous Squirrel wrote:
At the risk of this discussion running far afield, I think Jason and Paul
may be talking past each other. My understanding is that Jason has a point
-- corporations can't suffer the same punishment as individuals. They
aren't deprived of their freedom in prisons. The most common corporate
punishment is a fine.
Paul's point is SOX, GLBA, and HIPAA hold individuals accountable for their
acts at corporations.
Those two opinions are both correct, and do not contradict each other.
This is true, and important. Nonetheless, Jason seems to be almost
calling for mob justice, when he says:
The only option available to the people is mob justice. Corporations can
be ruined and they can be burned to the ground, but they can't be
touched in a meaningful way through mechanisms of law. Corporate persons
are truly first-class citizens, rising above the rest of us natural
persons in importance and worth to society.
Paul Schmehl is pointing out that this is false--the law can be used
against corporations, to regulate the acts of corporations by making
the persons who constitute their leadership personally liable in
criminal court.
I strongly doubt that vigilantism is an appropriate or even useful
response to corporations victimizing their customers with spyware. I
And yet, Jason has a deep point - corporations have more rights than
citizens. There is no jail time (freezing of assets and suspension of
sales, perhaps?) or death penalty (forced liquidation of assets,
distribution of proceeds to bond/stock owners - outside of bankruptcy
court) for them, and it's unlikely there ever will be, because they have
the money. The penalties should exist and be enforced, IMHO.
But this is political discussion, and perhaps not completely relevant to
this forum.
Kurt
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