-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Lorrey <mike@lorrey.com>
To: extropians@extropy.com <extropians@extropy.com>
Date: 14 December 1998 20:33
Subject: Re: Corporate liability (WAS: Environmentalism in a Free society)
>Samael wrote:
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Michael Lorrey <mike@lorrey.com>
>>
>> >Since a shareholder, when not prevented by the government, has the right
to
>> >examine all corporate documents, then current technology allows for
>> software
>> >driven complete due diligence if all company records are digitized
(which
>> can
>> >easily be made a standard by PPA polices). Granted that it was much
easier
>> in the
>> >past for a corporation to hide things, but this is no longer the case.
>>
>> What makes you think that when a corporation is freed from its
constraints
>> it won't stop people accessing it's records? Or covering them up?
>
>PPL involves interlocking insurance arrangements and arbitration
precedents,
>much as in civil and common law. In order for a corporation to be insured,
it
>must agree to the policies of the PPA they are insured with. A corporation
which
>engages in stock fraud rapidly loses value, and the officers of the
corporation
>engaging in the fraud can have civil action taken against them by the
corporate
>PPA, as well as the PPA of an independent stockholder association, and the
PPA
>of the employee union. Given such interlocking agreements, it becomes
standard
>practice in any corporation wishing to maximize stock value to open
corporate
>records to stockholders for due diligence purposes. If a corporate officer
>engages in liable actions in contradition to stated corporate policy, they
>become individually liable, and are not sheilded even by current day
limited
>liability corporate legal practices.
And Microsoft says "Fuck all of them. Anyone for Windows 2000" Most people don't think enough to look up the past record of a company . They don't care enough to look at the enviromental record. They don't give a damn about Microsoft forcing businesses to only carry their borwser or locking ISP's into carrying their products. They care abstractly, but when it comes down to it, most people don't look more than 6 inches beyond their nose, or 3 inches beyond the next bargain.
Samael