(04-22-2009 10:14 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  The motivation for corporations is to make money. They make money by selling me things. They sell me things by making things I want or need. which improves my life... or at least my perception of my life... so while corporations aren't perfect... their motivations don't necessarily conflict with mine... and if they do, I don't need to use their services.

Interesting point here about choice... one thing I have overlooked in my discussion of personal power versus the various "thems", be they government or coporations, is that on the surface it is much easier to have a meaningful choice in the case of which business to support (versus which gov't), because of economic disparities (while every individual only gets one vote). Thus in a sense it is easier to influence the market (assuming you have piles of money), but I am not sure this entirely works, because the big spenders are typically corporations themselves, and thus cannot do things for "right" reasons, but for profitable ones (unless the leadership is talented enough to make those seem the same). Additionally, you can "buy votes" in the political process in essence, through campaigns designed to influence others.

I bolded your last point because I think that this is very important, and hambone from our discussions I think we agree that the following situation is very bad. The first example I found from google is a direct summary from the main website of the SAC (songwriters association of canada) in which they propose a music download tax for everyone. Similar ideas are being floated by our president right now as he has been meeting with RIAA and MPAA types over the past month.

Quote:NEW REVISED VERSION OF S.A.C. PROPOSAL - Summary of proposal:

Most Canadians are aware that the Internet and mobile phone networks have become major sources of music. What they may not know is that songwriters and performers typically receive no compensation of any kind when their music is shared or illegally downloaded.

We believe the time has come to put in place a reasonable and unobtrusive system of compensation for creators of music in regard to this popular and growing use of their work.

The plan we propose would not change or interfere with the way Canadians receive their music. No one would be sued for the online sharing of songs. On the contrary, the sharing of music on Peer-to-Peer networks and similar technologies would become perfectly legal. In addition, Music Publishers and Record Labels would be fairly compensated for the crucial role they play in supporting Canadian music creators.

I think people underestimate the threat of this kind of precedent. It essentially removes choice by charging everyone for a supposed service, to the tune of $60 per year. And as people have pointed out, where does this kind of thing lead? Do car mechanics get an "isp tax" because DIY instructions can be found online? That cuts into their business! (Fortunately they don't have giant lobbies for this). Moreover, we've now reached a situation where entitlement runs high, and many industries, instead of evolving and changing to remain competitive, expect the government to step in to make their business model viable (you know, the opposite of what the government is supposed to do). This is something more people need to be aware of generally.