Free speech and corporations

Amidst all the manifold nastiness that corporations are trying to pull these days, this may be the most disgusting. Corporations are legally considered persons or at least quasi-persons -- owing to perhaps the most damaging judicial decision of the 20th century -- thus inheriting rights like freedom of speech, a notion that would have sickened all of the Enlightenment thinkers who taught us that rights inhere in persons. But now corporate wankers are trying -- again with the acquiescence of their bought-and-paid-for whores in Congress, and the dolts on the bench -- to limit the free speech rights of actual persons.

So-called 'veggie libel' laws are spreading rapidly, and courts are limiting what citizens, that is, persons, can say about corporations. Amazingly, it's becoming illegal to say detrimental things about corporations.

I think every American would do well to remember one simple fact: corporations exist at the whim of the sovereign, which is, in this country, at least for a while longer, the people. Woe unto corporate masters if they go too far and the old populist spirit in America rises up again. Corporations can be squashed like so many bugs. Corporate charters can be revoked.

Monkeyfist doesn't normally cop links from Slashdot, but this issue is way too important to ignore.

Nor is all speech on the Internet protected by the First Amendment. Increasingly, courts have been willing to help companies crack down on so-called "cybersmearing" -- bad-mouthing companies or their management online.

"Business speech is not subject to the same protections as political speech," said John Roberts, a Minneapolis attorney who specializes in cyberlaw. "You can't say whatever you want about a company."