The Short Arm of the Law

mindbrane writes "CNN takes a look at when companies are too big for the legal system to handle. Quoting: 'Prosecutors said that excluding Pfizer would most likely lead to Pfizer's collapse, with collateral consequences: disrupting the flow of Pfizer products to Medicare and Medicaid recipients, causing the loss of jobs including those of Pfizer employees who were not involved in the fraud, and causing significant losses for Pfizer shareholders. ... So Pfizer and the feds cut a deal. Instead of charging Pfizer with a crime, prosecutors would charge a Pfizer subsidiary, Pharmacia & Upjohn Co. Inc. ... As a result, Pharmacia & Upjohn Co. Inc., the subsidiary, was excluded from Medicare without ever having sold so much as a single pill. And Pfizer was free to sell its products to federally funded health programs.' IBM may have cast the mold for this sort of thing in its 1970s antitrust case, but the recurrence of similar cases speaks to ongoing concerns for legal systems."

Comments

Re:Thomas Jefferson said it best:

[Anonymous Coward]

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." Too bad no one listened to him.

He had a female nigger slave and he boinked her. I bet the neighbors were listening to that.

These Guys get everything they deserve for Vigara

[axonis]

Tell me they can stop those Viagra spams by banning the product for all those limpies who dont deserve IT anyway.

You can get away with murder.

[copponex]

Especially if you're a private military contractor in Iraq.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5xT1DGJMoQ

Re:Corporations are people, like it or not.

[khallow]

If we treat Corporations as persons in any context, they must be treated as persons in every context.

No. Let's give an example. You are being an idiot here in this context. Does that mean I should treat you as an idiot for every context? Like your job, for example? "I saw that Slashdot post last night, so here's someone to take with you when you need to perform motor functions related to your job, eat, or wipe your ass."

Re:The other side of the coin to Regulatory Captur

[DarkOx]

So Pfizer breaks the law, and the government is afraid to apply the prescribed penalties for the infraction and your solution is for the government to than break the law or rather selectively apply it and not enforce their IP rights.

Now personal I think the concept of intelectual property is bad and we should repeal those laws but I don't want to live in a systems where the powers that be; be they our corporate masters or our government can change the rules outside the process at their whim.

That is how how democracies end.

Re:Thomas Jefferson said it best:

[Archangel Michael]

Oh, I don't know about separation of Church and state being better OR worse. All I know is that the state is increasingly totalitarian if not kept in check.

It is now a crime to not have health insurance. You tell me how this is good for anyone? The IRS is now in charge of prosecuting people not for evading taxes, but for not having health insurance (Check box on 1040A???), and this is a good thing how? The state is mandating centralized Health records for all, and this is good why?

SO you see, The problem isn't separation of church and state, the problem is power corrupts.