What is Digg?68 Comments
- bitt3n, on 10/12/2007, -2/+27wait, all the other free movies released over bittorrent have been illegal?? uh oh...
- elitexero, on 10/12/2007, -8/+32Darn, I already illegally downloaded it last year.:P
This is a very good, informative and interesting documentary. HIGHLY recommended. - SteelChicken, on 10/12/2007, -4/+18and the big corporations, they sit in the corporation buildings, and they act all...corporationy
- daveboudreau, on 10/12/2007, -9/+22This film is so NOT overrated.
- redthumb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9If you want another good example of now corporations are controlling your life, watch, "Who Killed The Electric Car". My boys, 18 & 22 were screaming at the set by the end.
- kuribo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13Yeah, we just watched part of this in my political econ class, and it's very well done. Definitely recommended if you're into business, economics, etc.
- jonesin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10direct link
http://torrentfreak.com/torrents/The+Corporation+Filmmakers+Official+Download+Edition+-+DIVX.torrent - ClassicJBC, on 10/12/2007, -6/+14I recommend this movie for anyone who actually cares about where the U.S. and the world in general are headed. It's not a liberal or a conservative issue; it's simply about wanting the powers that control our lives (i.e., corporations) to be accountable.
- ClassicJBC, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9That's precisely the point of the documentary. We give companies the PRIVILEGE of acting as a single entity with certain rights just like an individual citizen. However, we don't impose the same regulations we apply to individuals or the same scrutiny.
The film says, "Okay, if you're going to be treated like a person, we're going to psychoanalyze you like one." And the fact is that corporations exist without a conscience toward greater public good and are focused solely on their own gratification. While the film does more to explain this, companies could be considered psychopathic. - oxyrubber, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10Any documentary that breaks into the mainstream is probably overrated, but that means the producrer/director did something right: (s)he got the viewers involved enough to want their friends/family to see it. Overrated? Maybe. Worth watching? Yes.
- stonebear, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Unfortunately, the people who need to see this film most don’t even know what bittorrent is.
- jerbaker, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9"No corporation tells me what to wear, what foods to eat, or where to live."
This is a myth perpetuated by many people. Corporations do tell you what you can have and when you can have it all the time. Who has not had favorite products discontinued? How is that NOT telling me what I can eat, wear, or where to live? Corporations tell you that you WILL eat whatever makes us the largest profit, you WILL wear what ever has the largest ROI, and you WILL live where we can build the cheapest and sell the highest. How would a market work if it worked any differently? Not only that, but you have to auction off 1/3 of your life to the highest bidder in order to survive.
It's fine if you like capitalism, and if you are a supporter. You are entitled to that opinion, but please don't dress it up in sheep's clothing to make it look better. - zeero, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8corporations control what you wear, what you watch on tv, what cars you drive, how much you pay for food, gas, housing... its harder to name what they DONT control
- neckfire, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9Great Film. Watch it!
- jerbaker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Striving to maximize profit is only a good thing when no costs are externalized. Unfortunately for the real world all sorts of costs are externalized. Does Unocal pay a fee to all of the citizens around it's Carson, CA oil refinery for their increased risk of lung cancer or other respiratory ailments? Nope. The people themselves, and the taxpayers shoulder this burden. Does Wal-Mart pay me anything for the extra 2 minutes added to by commute because of their delivery trucks? Nope. I pay for that without reimbursement. There are literally millions of ways that costs are externalized and so market prices do not really reflect the true cost. In that case, working to maximize profit coincides with maximizing the cost to society. Lots of smart people know this and that's why corporations try to push more costs out of their ledgers and into someone else's. They accomplish this by cutting healthcare benefits, retirement benefits, raiding pension funds, and so on.
You should be saying now that it's impossible for a product to be priced to take into account every tiny little cost imposed on the world because of its production and distribution, and you'd be correct. That's one of the problems. - nightsweat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Not entirely true. Corporations also rise because they bribe politicians to get corporate welfare and to set artificial barriers to entry to the market they are in.
I don't think anyone has a problem with the idea of a company making money. Treating a company like a person while exempting them from personal responsibility because they had the cash to contribute to political campaigns? I think we're all against that. - nialmcg, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8this IS a great film. watch it, and decide for yourself.
dismissing it out of hand is doing yourself a disservice. - daveboudreau, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8This is a great film and Mark throwing a free bittorrent out there shows he is really behind what he made. It's a long film but it is definitely NOT overrated.
- startleman, on 10/12/2007, -6/+10Great movie.
Posting it to bittorrent also helps further it's main points.
e.g. Corporations act like psychopaths, and greed is the main motivator causing people to harm others. - MemeWarrior, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Actually, the directors and producers had a difficult time getting this film on DVD at all. I'm not sure how much they made off of the DVD sales, but I would venture to guess that it wasn't a whole lot. They're releasing it for free in order to get the information out there. To say that their primary motive is otherwise is stretching it in my opinion. It's FREE, what would it take to satisfy you? Would they have to pay you to see the film?
- MrThi3f, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'm willing to donate not only because it is a very interesting movie, but because they posted it on bit torrent perhaps in spite of large corporations.
- dankoleary, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is a fine film, and for free it's a great way to spend some time this holiday weekend. It's a real eye opener, even if you don't agree with their thesis.
- Anthet, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Somone should do this exact movie but instead psychoanalyse governments.
- greyfade, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8i would beg to differ. corporations do control people in as much as people are sheep to be herded by advertising and indoctrination.
- vguard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Fascism IS Corporationism...Just look at who's "sponsoring" our police state.
- masscrazy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6EYE Opening documentary must see!
- willistg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2maybe time warner is choking me, but it seems that for all the seeders there are I'm getting ***** transfer. Thus, bittorrent is a horrible method of distributing free movies...oh wait. :P
- dawgma, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I don't think this move is "exemplifying the movies main points" as some have claimed.
I've seen it and enjoyed it as well... but it's obvious that the producers have just waited until sales were low enough that it was worth the publicity to just release it for free.
Granted... this move does prevent them from reaching that totally "psychotic" stage where they would rather keep the product and not make money from, rather than release it and still not make money from it. - knickerbocker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2gosseyn,
Sorry you feel that way. It makes valid points all through. It starts with the premise that if a Corporation were judged by the same benchmarks as humans, Corporations would be declared insane. That said, I think it was a very compelling film and aside from what's on celluloid, what impressed me the most is that when I saw it on its first run, on a cheapie Tuesday showing, Mark Achbar and Joel Bakan showed up and did an inpromptu Q&A for the audience. Talk about getting your money's worth! - brianbennett, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I rented this a while back, it's pretty one-sided, obviously very anti-corporate. Alot of Wal-Mart bashing and not enough coverage on how people vote with their feet.
- monofonik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yes, one sided indeed. I wholeheartedly disagree with you. They interviewed that guy from Interface, the guy from Shell, tonnes of schills for the corporations that had their chance to speak their piece in the film. I think the film was not one sided, but maybe its actually a one sided issue.
- skilskilskil, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Great! I can watch the whole thing now without falling asleep in the theatre.
It's not that the film wasn't good but rather a bad choice for me to see a documentary at a 10pm viewing on a work night. - BoboTheGeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Fantastic Movie..
It's a must see!!
It's been out for a while so hopefully they made some decent money on it, but I think it's a real service to us that they're offering it. Maybe more will do the same. - gaijintendo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I love the idea of paying what you think a movie is worth for seeing it. I think that is a fantastic measure of a movies worth. It also is fantastic publicity.
- stoppard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1streaming link
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4333911061965057902&q=the+corporation - akinder, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Exactly, but it's easier for everyone to bash corporations like they are some evil darkness hiding in the closet waiting to rape you or something.
There is nothing wrong with having corporations, it enables us to enjoy the things that we do today. And anyone is free to start their own corporation if they'd like, but most people don't have the knack for managing or handling their own company, which is evident by reading most of these comments. - king0770, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I agree with ClassicJBC.
I bought this DVD a long time ago; still watch it from time to time. This film was a source of material for many of my papers in college. - ryansasteroid, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5People like this evidence a fundamental failure to understand what a corporation is and why it acts like it does. A corporation is not an "individual," its status as an individual is a legal fiction so that a corporation can enter into contracts.
A corporation's actions are simply the actions of its shareholders and board of directors. I think any "individual" with 1000 different people directing its actions might be labeled as psychopathic.
As far as greed goes, the object of a corporation is making a profit. If a corporation wasn't concerned with making money, the shareholders would dissolve the corporation. Altruistic corporations are usually also non-profits, whose objects are very different. - jahiscallin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0great movie, download it!
- bsongo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2nothing is free.
- Tuxbunta, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6Anyone who thinks this 'documentary' is good needs to watch the South Park Walmart episode. Corporations rise because we buy their products. Plain and f***ing simple. You don't like it. Well there are many communes in the US where you can get back in touch with the earth, and so on. Either that or stop b****ing and drive your cheap mass produced car, eat your cheap mass produced food, watch your cheap mass produced tvs, and sleep in your cheap mass produced beds.
- MarkAchbar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0There are multiple reasons why I posted the film as a torrent.
First, I want the largest possible global audience for the film. Many people are just too poor to rent or buy it or live in countries where we have no distribution and I wanted them to have access. Torrents are brilliant for that.
Second, I care about the quality of the finished work that reaches people. I also prefer the feature version of the film. So if all this file sharing is going on, I at least wanted to offer people the best possible quality and what I felt is the best version. I also wanted to tell people about the DVD and the 8 hours of extras it has to offer. 5 1/2 of those hours are 165 clips that are not in the film, of all the interview subjects, with no commentary, no music, no manipulation. Some people like these clips better than the film itself because they're just the straight goods.
Anyway, at some point it just started to bug me that other people were sharing my work, not just with a few friends, but with tens of thousands of strangers, via bit torrents, edonkey, now emule, and all the rest, without my knowledge or permission. Extrapolating from bittorrent counters, a conservative estimate is that 500,000 people have shared the film. They don't have the right to do that. They have the technical ability, obviously, but that doesn't give them the right. Not without my permission. That's just my opinion.
In any case, it was going on and it will continue to go on whether I like it or not, so I figured the sensible thing to do would be to put my best quality-best version-torrent out there along with a little message at the beginning telling people that we would very much appreciate some financial support, (www.thecorporation.com) because the film still hasn't broken even yet, although numerous distributors and theatres and stores and video rental businesses have made quite a few dollars from it. Even the Canadian government agencies that supported it are in profit. But never confuse gross and net. I put in all my savings—more than $300,000 over the years—to pay for budget overages, 35mm blow-up, DVD production, website, and ongoing promotion and outreach. At one point I even put my house on the line. This isn't a sob story, they're just economic facts. I still manage to live a comfortable, middle-class existence thanks mainly to the ongoing generosity of my parents. But it's important for the film to eventually break even, and to make a little extra to support our promotion and outreach efforts, and to get to the point that our profit-sharing plan kicks in for a number of the key creative people who worked on the film for less than they were worth in the commercial marketplace.
This isn't a Hollywood film calculated to exploit your baser instincts. And it's definitly not the product of a publicly-traded transnational media corporation. It's made by hard working indepenent filmmakers—about 200 of us in production and me almost 9 years now—who risked a lot to put out a perspective on a set of problems that affect us all. Clearly that effort has some value or this discussion wouldn't be taking place.
If you support the film, support the filmmakers who made it.
Thanks! - Tuxbunta, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"corporations control what you wear, what you watch on tv, what cars you drive, how much you pay for food, gas, housing... its harder to name what they DONT control"
Oh, I thought I made those decisions. Well thank you corporations for giving me the Office, cheap gas, and food everywhere I turn. - philforhumanity, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I can not seem to find the torrent link on their website. Does anyone have it?
- knickerbocker, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4"am i the only one who thought this movie was poorly made?"
Yes. HTH - apache2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1TINSTAAFL
- ISIfunded911, on 10/12/2007, -7/+6Not only are corporations pathological, since they are not democratic structures, their value systems are fundamentally based on numbers, not on human and cooperative values, and their goal is to succesfully fight a war (economic), but capitalism in essence is necrophile: its goal is to turn life and the Earth into money/capital, which is either dead (paper, objects,) or virtual. Human beings have no HUMAN value inside capitalism. This is why they may very well be replaced by robots if capitalists decide they are more practical...and not for the benefit of human beings, which may be eliminated by the capitalists...and eventually the robots may eliminate everyone.
You are not a number. Capitalism disagrees. How can you be capitalist? By not being human. - katytron, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2“Do I know you well enough to call you fellow plunderers?”
- voisine, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5Corporations are absolutely not focused on their own gratification. What would that even mean? A corporation's sole purpose for existence is to create profit for the stock holders. And that's a *good* thing. Money is a representation of value. You provide something of value to other members of society and they give you money in exchange. Profit is simply making more money than you spend, or producting more value than you consume. Companies should brag about and take pride in how much profit they make (how much net value they've produced for society). They only time generating profit isn't creating true value for society is in the case of fraud, theft, or when costs are pushed onto others (like with polution). Those things should simply be illegal and strictly enforced. Then true costs would be reflected in market prices.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+7Corporations are the bogeymen of the left and liberals are the pariahs of the right. Both left & right argue using emotional slogans and rhetoric, rather than serious intellectual inquiry.
There are two main ways a corporation can survive:
1) Create products and services that others want to buy.
2) Lobby (tacitly bribe) the government to artificially prop up a market (e.g., farm subsidies, trade tariffs, and other forms of corporate welfare).
The first option is very beneficial, as companies have to constantly innovate and compete with each other for the customer's money. No corporation tells me what to wear, what foods to eat, or where to live. I control my money and if any company wants it they are going to have to give me what I want in return.
The second option is very harmful as it turns the focus of the corporation from the customer to brown-nosing whoever is holding political power. Instead of innovating, companies focus on wielding political influence (e.g. Halliburton & Cheney). Big companies and the government have been in bed for quite some time, and their bastard children of corruption, greed, and waste pose a threat to this country.
"The Corporation" would have you believe that corporate structures are inherently evil and can do no good. Unfortunately, life is not that simple. Corporations, like individuals, can be a force for good by providing jobs and increasing the standard of living. They can be a force for evil by polluting the environment and exploiting workers. And like people they are never completely good or completely evil, but a mix of both.
Corporate-bashers are like liberal-bashers: both think that by vanquishing their philosophical nemesis the world will be transformed into a much better place. After seeing his film, I give Mark Achbar about as much credence as Ann Coulter. -
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