Now, I grow more anti-corporate every day so I might be just seeing what I want to see, but to me, it seems like the recent RIAA lawsuit displays a case of cultural brainwashing that has made the members of the juries fail to see how the government lopsidedly favors the corporation over the individual.
I remember after 911, I picked up a copy of People Magazine that was their special "911 edition." I was shocked to see the hideously inappropriate ads they placed opposite pictures of people in the middle of reacting to the towers falling in front of them. You can see the pages I built around scans of the issue to get what I'm talking about. Now, I posted links to this a few different places I hang out on the 'net and I was surprised that most people just shrugged it off, usually saying "well, they've got to make a living, don't they?"
This attitude infuriated me. So, it's OK to be completely disrespectful AND use the horror of that day to help sell life insurance???
No, screw that, man. Human dignity is worth more to me than a corporation's "right to make a living." Of course, the USG thinks differently. They think corporations have almost all of the same rights as humans. While they can't vote (I'm sure that day will come) they can afford to sway lawmakers if they're big and powerful enough, whereas for us individuals can't always do that. In fact, over 90 percent of the world can't compare bank accounts to most huge corporations, so you can see how unfair this is.
Now, enter the RIAA, the group that "represents" the recording industry in copyright infringement cases. They were seen as fairly defending their rights as corporations. It's perfectly cool to charge (at least) $750 every time someone infringes on their copyright. But about the consumer's right to getting their money's worth?
Better yet, why not ask the question: what about the individual human's right to spend as little money as possible for something?
That's how corporations behave--they outsource American jobs because, according to US law they have to pay us too much money. If they pay us according to US law, they won't be able to make a living.
Well, if I pay full price for a record album, I won't be able TO EAT.
See the problem?
Corporations can blow off the rights of individual humans to make a decent wage so they can afford to buy stuff.
Individuals like that poor woman who downloaded 24 songs and must now pay $222,000 aren't being given the same leeway to do what they have to do in order to survive. And yes, art is a required part of human life--without it we'd be slaves to our eating, sexing and defecating programming.
Corporations can do what ever they have to do to cut costs and spend less in order to make more money. Regular old you and me, we don't have that right. We have to respect the rights of the corporation over our own rights to do the same thing corporations can do.
Lucky for the RIAA and other big businesses, our media programs most of us to believe corporations are just like people--with rights protected by law and therefore sacrosanct. Too bad people don't realize that corporations break laws all the time and aren't capable of going to jail. They're also governed by us and can't technically be created without the OK of the state government through a thing called a "corporate charter."
Things were set up this way so that if a corporation behaved in a way that the people didn't approve of, they could petition the government to revoke the company's corporate charter. The catch is, the government can blow off such petitions and with them being lobbied by groups like the RIAA, you can imagine how many corporations lose their charter.
Ultimately, what we've got here is a return to the feudal system. Us peasants work for the feuds (corporations) who are governed by the king (government) who receives lavish royalty-level tributes (campaign contributions).
Isn't it COOL?
Forget the "New World Order" this is serious old skool governance going on right here.
Orignal From: CORPORATE DOUBLE STANDARD ON DISPLAY WITH RIAA SUCCESS
No comments:
Post a Comment