One Nation Under Copyright: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:Caldari State 104.jpg|link=EVE Online|frame|Yes, their flag is a copyright sign. (Or a euro sign, depending on which way you look at it)]]

 

A [[Mega Corp]] is often a large, shadowy organization with a power base and structure that rivals even [[The Government]]. When you take it one step further, with the Mega Corp actually ''being'' the government, you get '''One Nation Under Copyright''', or a "corporate state."

 

Very common in the [[Cyberpunk]] genre. If the story is set [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]], then it more likely than not takes place in either a [[Divided States of America]] or [[Japan Takes Over the World|Japan]].

{{examples}}

* Anaheim Electronics is the quintessential [[Mega Corp]] in the ''[[Gundam]]'' franchise's original timeline, the Universal Century. Not only does the corporation have significant clout in the [[The Federation|Earth Federation]], but it effectively runs the Lunar colonies and especially Von Braun City like their own personal domain. This clout, however, does eventually wane further down the timeline, due to the presence of SNRI.

 

* In the dystopian novel ''[[Jennifer Government]]'', not only do corporate states run America, but every citizen takes the last name of their business. The heroine is a government agent; the villain, John Nike, works for Nike, and children take the last names of the corporation that owns their school. The central point of the novel was that this was where we'd be eventually headed if deregulation continued the way it was going.

* ''The Year of the Comet'' by [[John Christopher]].{{context}}

* In Heinlein's ''[[The Cat Who Walks Through Walls]]'', the Golden Rule space habitat is run by the Golden Rule Corporation, which is the law there. The General Manager of the station can pretty much do what he wants there, although he is restrained by being a [[Villain with Good Publicity]] and feels he can't just kill someone without a good excuse. Failure to pay your air tax will, however, result in being thrown out the airlock (rumor has it that you are made into ground "pork" instead, though).

* In Heinlein's ''[[Friday (novel)|Friday]]'', the Shipstone [[Mega Corp]] has grown so powerful in a [[Balkanize Me|balkanized world]] that the heroine starts to think of them as the only effective government.

Yossarian: They don't need it, they're rich.

Milo Minderbinder: Then they'll understand.}}

* The Sullustan homeworld Sullust, in the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'', is this. The SoroSuub corporation owns the planet and employs most of its inhabitants. Unlike most examples, SoroSuub is depicted as rather benign, working for the well being of the Sullustans.

* Both Beowulf and [[Big Bad|Mesa]] in ''[[Honor Harrington|Honorverse]]'' are run along the corporativist lines, which is hardly surprising, as Mesa was settled essentially by a group of rogue Beowulfers. Both are controlled by the board of directors, with votes arranged corresponding to the owned stock, though Mesa muddles the water a bit, {{spoiler|being secretly run by the [[Ancient Conspiracy]]}}. Manticore initially was also envisioned in the same way, though it mutated into [[The Kingdom|something]] [[The Empire|else]] [[The Federation|entirely]]. It's also mentioned that such political arrangement isn't anything unusual in the galaxy.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Star Control]] II'''s Druuge of the Persei system take this trope to a ridiculous extent: The Crimson Corporation is not only a government substitute, but owns all the natural resources and inhabitants as well. Druuge who quit (or are fired from) the corporation are instantly found guilty of stealing air and are sentenced to death. Druuge who are no longer useful, cannot work, or are in debt are tossed into the reactors of the nearest power station to be used as fuel.

* ''[[Galactic Civilizations]]'': The Korx would sell you their own mothers if they hadn't already sold them to someone else.

** The reason for that is likely that if you could, Morgan Industries could be a [[Fridge Logic|non-corporate state]]. As it stands, the available choices [[Alternate Character Interpretation|can be seen]] as representing different ''variations'' of One Nation Under Copyright (Democracy: ''One Man, One Share'', Fundamentalist: ''God, Incorporated'', Green: ''A green economy is a sustainable economy'', Power: ''Power is the shortest path to wealth'')

* On the [[Older Than the NES|old]] BBC Micro there was a space-trader game called ''[[Elite]]''. This featured some planets that were corporate states.

* The Shin-Ra company from ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''. Ostensibly, there is a mayor to the city of Midgar, but his offices are in the company building, and he does not have any real power. His only real job is managing all of Shinra's archived files.

* In ''[[Crusader: No Remorse]]'', the [[Big Bad|WEC]] arose from the merger of the economic bodies that themselves took over the running of the various continents from more conventional governments when they toppled or became too weak. interestingly, the WEC actually claims to ''not'' be a government, merely a steward for the powers of government, even as it goes about cheerfully tightening its grip on the ways, the means, the sources, and the consumers of production.

* The Czerka Corporation from ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', while functioning like a normal mega-corporation in Republic Space, actually has complete control over at least two known planets, Tattooine and Kashyyyk, in the first game.

** One of the loading screens says they and other mega-corps police themselves, being too large for the Republic to control. Czerka seems to still be in The Reblic's good graces in the second one despite openly dealing arms to both sides.

** Since the death of [[Only Sane Man|Otro Gariushi]] and the recapture of Caldari Prime, the glue holding the State together has increasingly become [[Putting on the Reich|Tibus Heth and his underlings.]]

* With the possible exception of ''[[Armored Core]] 2'' and its successor, Another Age, the world is dominated not by one, but multiple corporate states.

** Interestingly, the Volus find the idea of parents "owning" their children to be absurd, which is why they associate by clan rather than family.

* The ''[[X (video game)|X-Universe]]'' series of games have the Teladi, a race of [[Petting Zoo People|anthropomorphic lizard-people]] with [[Planet of Hats|an almost religious devotion toward profit.]] They even refer to their race as 'The Teladi Company' and their ruler's official position is chairman.

** Whose name in the first game is Ceo. [[Lampshade Hanging]], much?

* [[System Shock|TriOptimum Corporation]] filled this role, until things went [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot|horribly]] [[Kill'Em All|horribly]] [[The Virus|horribly]] [[Gone Horribly Wrong|wrong]].

* The Vector corporation in the ''[[Xenosaga]]'' series fits this trope to a T. Almost to the degree of being ridiculous, given certain revelations in the third game {{spoiler|such as the fact that Vector's CEO is the head of a religious organization hell-bent on Vector's destruction too}}.

 

== Web Original ==