The projects in this fund
challenge the legal rights and powers that corporations have arrogated over
the years. Many of these projects focus on corporations' status as full
persons, obtained via an 1886 U.S. Supreme Court ruling based on
the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was ratified to protect
the rights of freed slaves.
"Get a famous sportswear manufacturer (or any other giant corporation) to agree, on broadcast or other public media, to sponsor the high-quality education, health care, etc. of a U.S. baby who would otherwise not have access to same--in exchange for having the baby tattooed with the company's logo in the womb or at birth." (Nearly on target.)
"Determine which corporations would NOT be in jail today, if corporations were jailed for offenses just like individuals. Plot the results in various ways, and publicize the result in the media."
"Create an online fantasy role-playing game in which a corporation begins invading all aspects of the world like a virus invading a body; players must work together to defeat this menace."
for "a television reporter to consistently compare the punishment corporations receive for actual violations with the punishment individuals would receive for similar offenses."
"Since U.S. corporations are by law U.S. citizens, it should be possible to marry one. Successfully marry an actual corporation, so that the marriage is legally binding; the event must be reported in the media."
"A police officer or FBI agent in Washington DC should arrest a member of the Senate or House of Representatives, on charges of accepting bribes from lobbyists. Conversely, also arrest a lobbyist for bribing a government official. Must have extensive media coverage."
"Amid the chaos of the current Fortune 500-sponsored election we should take a step back and, in the words of former Secretary of State James Baker, stop hurling. We will construct a website that would allow voters to recast their ballots in any election in our nation's history-- including the 2000 Presidential one. Imagine being able to recast the votes that you deeply regret now that you've had to live with the consequences of your choices. Even better, imagine readjusting your great-great-grandparents' miscast votes back in Eighteen Something, when the Whigs and the Anti-Masons seemed to be the elixirs of the moment. Doesn't every choice deserve to be revisited? Why not? It can only widen the eyes of the present day voter."
"The extent of US-based corporations' contributions to human rights abuses abroad demands procedures to collect corporate information anonymously. Project funding will provide award for law review article contest. The winning article will 1) describe the most efficiently designed organizational form for creating anonymous shareholders, 2) discuss maximizing such shareholders' right to inspect corporate books and 3) discuss the legal limits of shareholder anonymity and shareholders' right to inspect corporate books. The most efficient organizational form means the choice of organization (corporation, partnership, trust, etc.) that provides the best measure of anonymity for shareholders at the lowest cost."
"We are working on a project here in Bristol, UK, to take hostage a number of letters from corporate billboards (i.e the letters that make up the name of the company above the premises) and photograph them to make a ransom note to send to all the companies we have taken from as well as to the press. We are still working on a list of demands for the release of the letters. If the demands are not met the letter of each company will be destroyed in a different way at random times and will be documented on film and sent again to the companies and to the press, with a warning to prepare for more letters to be lost."
"Create and distribute a product scanner that accesses a database and shows instantly the terrible practices involved in making the product scanned. In addition, the machine prints out a label customized to the product, that can be glued to the product's packaging on the spot." Note: preliminary work towards such a scanner can be found here. See also this page.
"In France at the beginning of March, every year, there is a 'Fête de l'Internet', a kind of internet festival, heavily funded by the French Ministry of Culture and serving only to promote big computer companies. (The Ministry of Culture does not, however, support internet artists.) Create a mediatic event to underline the strictly commercial nature of this net stupidity."
"Create a corporate suicide website precisely describing to CEOs how they can kill their own corporations (for whatever personal reasons they may have)."