RE: Charging the Charger [was: GPL v3 public performance idea?]

On Mon, 16 May 2005, Anderson, Kelly wrote:
> The only way to tell a corporation that they
> have done something "wrong" is to punish them financially.

Technically, they can have their charters revoked.  The concept has 
its fans:

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=1810
http://www.sherrystoll.com/grow_democracy/reclaim3.html

Apparently it hasn't happened since 1890:
http://www.theexperiment.org/articles.php?news_id=822

Though this was interesting:
http://www.duhc.org/rethinking_revoking.html

   The New York Attorney General's office has shown surprising leadership
   in challenging corporate charters. The previous Republican AG (Dennis
   Vacco) successfully revoked the charters of two non-profit tax-exempt
   front groups for the tobacco corporations (Tobacco Institute and
   Council for Tobacco Research), and seized and distributed their assets
   to two public institutions. The current Democratic AG (Eliot Spitzer)
   proposed - in a pre-election speech - a "death penalty" for corporations
   that cause serious harm, though he has failed to take any action since
   his election.

 	Brian