Comments on: Companies are not people – to think so is dangerous

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:59:47 +0000

Guess you hate to hear about this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8473253.stm I cant believe it. Horrible.

By: Pablo Rodriguez

Pablo Rodriguez — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:38:15 +0000

Companies are not people, but in Spanish law we make a difference between «personas jurídicas» and «personas físicas», that is, “corporate persons” and “physical persons”. German law also distinguishes between »juristische Personen« and »natürliche Personen« (again, between “corporate persons” and “natural persons” [translation in both cases doesn't make full sense, but it is literal to try to show the original sense in other languages]). «Persona» meant in Latin also «the subject of rights».
I don’t know what your experience is, but an example of companies not being people is that companies invoke personal loyalty from their employees, but they apply the minimum required to them. I doesn’t happen all the time, but it happens.

By: Don Marti

Don Marti — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:40:37 +0000

Don’t be too sure about that shares scheme as a protection for your data. Google spun off part of DoubleClick after the acquisition, and could spin off other divisions with personal info too. Antitrust regulators could even force it.

By: me

me — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:21:11 +0000

The preferred shares scheme Google has, allows it to fend off any hostile takeover attempt:
‘Our board of directors may issue, without stockholder approval, shares of undesignated preferred stock. The ability to issue undesignated preferred stock makes it possible for our board of directors to issue preferred stock with voting or other rights or preferences that could impede the success of any attempt to acquire us. ‘
There’s also the differentiated shares scheme, Google management has class B shares, the public has class A shares. The class B shares have 10 votes, whereas the class A shares have only one. Google management has a large majority of voting power. There’s about 75 million class B shares and about 250 million class A shares. Since you cannot buy class B shares, good luck with that hostile takeover.

By: Joe Buck

Joe Buck — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:52:41 +0000

A nitpick: Google will own the data that they collect, but they won’t “own the copyright”. Instead it would be their trade secret. You can’t copyright data in the US.
Also, Google doesn’t have to be “bought”. Consider HP. At one time it was a highly humane company, and bragged, properly, about “the HP Way”. The stockholders wanted higher returns, so they brought in new management, which heaped scorn on every management practice Messrs. Hewlett and Packard stood for. Brin and Page could be replaced by more cut-throat characters at any time.
No promise from a corporation that isn’t backed by a legally binding contract is worth anything.

By: Gregor

Gregor — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:17:48 +0000

I second Eric’s recommendation – “The corporation” explores our schizophrenic perception of entities quite well.
http://www.thecorporation.com/index.cfm?page_id=2

By: Xan

Xan — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:33:37 +0000

Great entry.

By: Eric Pritchett

Eric Pritchett — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:16:37 +0000

You should rent the DVD The Corporation. I think you’d enjoy it.