[kerkeslager]

> I don't like this but if a corporation is a person, they have the same right to it that the rest of the public has.

1. A corporation is not a person. Corporations don't have rights, except inasmuch as the people within the corporation have rights.

2. The problem isn't that Google has access to the data, it's that USGS and the rest of the world no longer have access to the data, except on Google's terms.

[deelowe]

Wasn't there a seminal surpreme court case that has been used as precident to show that corporations do have rights? Something tax related?

[kerkeslager]

The supreme court also decided in Dred Scott v. Sandford that people of African descent imported into the United States and held as slaves were not included under the constitution and could never be citizens.

The supreme court was wrong on racism, and it's wrong on corporate personhood.

[deelowe]

What's right and wrong is a purely human construct and changes over time. The point was that, currently, in the eyes of the law, corporations hold many of the same rights as individuals. This could change, but would require special circumstances not considered previously or a change to the law by congress.