I wonder if what we're seeing here is basically the beginning of a new era of some sort of feudalism, and the end of "the age of equality".
The French revolution, US revolution etc. talked about and put equality into their constitutions, and that has kinda been the prevailing world view ever since. Although, I guess the real cause for this were technologies like the printing press, gun powder and the assembly line - technologies that made people more equal.
But now, even if most people hear about this, I'm guessing that most will continue using Windows. For the last 200 years or so, we've had various leaders standing up for the little guy, but I wonder if anybody will bother in the future, when they see that most "little guys" will not even bother to switch operating systems or use a different search engine in order to preserve their freedoms and rights.
We have been in an economic feudalism for the last century. The fact that companies have all the right and none of the duty of a normal person in front of the law with the all power money can buy means there is a strong disparity between normal citizens and them. Corporation have effectively replaced the Lords of the previous despotic regimes in the Western World.
Only when we cease to consider Corporations more important than the rest of the economic actors can we move the balance of powers back where the it has been intended by the previous revolutionary movement.
But this is kind of off-topic with this news.
I hope MSFT get a bash for this kind of niceties and implement an opt-out solution for all their in-built spyware.
See [1] for an overview of corporate personhood. They don't get all of the protections and rights of a human being, but they do get a surprising number of them (like free speech) even though they never die, have children, or serve in the military. They also can't be jailed, and not all laws that apply to a natural person apply to a corporation. I'm sure that GP has some other examples of "none of the duty of a normal person" in mind, but that's what I know of off the top of my head.
Regarding their power, I think that corresponds to corporations' ability to amass wealth and influence (often) faster than an individual. Of course there is a spectrum -- national defense contractors with billions of dollars in the bank can have a surprising amount of say in the way things are run, but an incorporated small business might have a hard time getting a local zoning issue addressed.
Ok, the comment was a bit extreme and the reality is surely a bit more like a multiple of shade of gray.
But what the other comment mention is on the right track as members of a corporation can easily rip the benefice produced by it, but can as easily distance themselves from it, should it find itself in financial or legal troubles. Of course one can argue that owners and decision makers from that particular entity can be sued individually. And that's fine as well.
And before anyone mention, that investor should have some kind of protection, may I kindly remind you that there should be a balance: the Greek bailout (and the other big bailout from the last few years) is anything but a way from private entities to off load onto the public some mistakes they have made. I don't know of a single instance of a family that has had their debt wipe out during the same period.
I guess there is a critical size to acquire for any social actor to be able to leverage the government and the law makers into protecting them from catastrophic outcome.
The French revolution, US revolution etc. talked about and put equality into their constitutions, and that has kinda been the prevailing world view ever since. Although, I guess the real cause for this were technologies like the printing press, gun powder and the assembly line - technologies that made people more equal.
But now, even if most people hear about this, I'm guessing that most will continue using Windows. For the last 200 years or so, we've had various leaders standing up for the little guy, but I wonder if anybody will bother in the future, when they see that most "little guys" will not even bother to switch operating systems or use a different search engine in order to preserve their freedoms and rights.