[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Errr, no.  The protocols would indicate what level of response is appropriate for what level of infraction, which corporations are likely to be best used as 'infraction executors' against which other corporations, and the like.  Understand that the Court doesn't need to allocate funding; many if not most corporations already have the stuff available, and with one level of 'hunting license' or another from the Court, they get to keep everything they carry away, up to the noted damages amount.

It's like this.  One of the AA corporations - let's say Yakashima, just because they're a pain - screws the pooch by getting caught committing corporate espionage and excessive damage against, say, Horizon, so the Court rules against it.  In the first part of their ruling, they first award compensatory damages to Horizon - they first state that Yakashima has to pay Horizon ¥50,000,000,000 for the past six months of hunting and sinking their shipping, to pay for the ships, the lives of the slain Horizon employees, the value of the lost goods that Horizon was shipping, the loss of revenue due to the damage to their reputation and brand, all sorts of crap.  In the second part of their ruling, however, they state that in declaring open season on Horizon shipping and provably sinking or causing the destruction of not just one or two but sixty Horizon-flag ships, Yakashima has gone too far, and so they issue punitive damages (see also the main article) against Yakashima.

But see, the Court doesn't generally 'pay out' punitive damages; instead, they allow a corporation to cut out the appropriate pound of flesh.  So in this instance, they check their protocols, and decide that at current, Wuxing is best placed to enforce the will of the Court, to the tune of ¥25,000,000,000.  Wuxing can now use corporate assets - even military forces!! - to go in and either a) cause a crapton of damage to Yakashima's stuff, like sinking their ships and blowing up their buildings and killing their people, or b) actually take Yakashima's stuff (if they can manage it), including but not limited to vehicles, gear, research information, extracting Yakashima scientists, all that kind of crap.

Typically, a Corporate Court observer will be nearby to take a look at the assault, to inspect the take, and/or to walk through the ruins, all in order to determine the value of the strike so that it can be tallied against the ¥25 billion of Yakashima's punitive damage assessment.  If Wuxing goes over the assigned nuyen value, they have to pay Yakashima the balance - but usually the Court's observer is going to be somewhat lenient in this sort of case.

The target - Yakashima - is allowed to resist, but the CC observer is still going to go through after the action's up and estimate how much they had to spend to fight off the strike - bullets, killed security officers, etc. etc.  Since everything spent fighting off the strike is a straight loss, it'd be the Court's view that it all goes towards the punitive damage tally, so Yakashima might still have to repair the building, but at least they won't lose everything there.

[Crimsondude]

"Don't overthrow a national government" and "don't go at war" are supposed to be golden rules of the court.

"Don't try to overthrow a national government unless you can get away with lt." Corp Shadowfiles, 100.

And the "Don't go to war" rule has never really been broken. The closest the megas ever came is still Renraku and Fuchi being at their equivalent of DEFCON 2 and hours away from killing each other during the Corp Court trial regarding Miles Lanier in Technobabel.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

And thirdly, the first one is more what you'd call a "guideline" than an actual rule; being a government costs money instead of making it, so it's simply easier and more cost-effective to work around or bribe officials instead of having to take over all the forms of government.

[Crimsondude]

And thirdly, the first one is more what you'd call a "guideline" than an actual rule; being a government costs money instead of making it, so it's simply easier and more cost-effective to work around or bribe officials instead of having to take over all the forms of government.

I guess it depends on "taking over." I mean. the U.S. took over numerous countries directly or indirectly and only a couple ended up costing real money because our government stupidly decided to foot the bill on losers. Is it also taking over if you have another country do it for you like United Fruit got the U.S. to send in the Marines to create their own banana republics?

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

The Corporate Court's version is basically that it's a no-no if the corporation is either a) exposed as the reason behind the government's overthrow, or b) has to take over governing the country itself.  The first exposes corporate power too blatantly (and people still do love their countries, let me tell ya), while the second is a loss-leader to the bottom line.  If there is a puppet government in line, who'll take the taxes and pay the corporation to execute a service (e.g. Renraku handles Republica Bananica's grid, Shiawase handles the garbage collection, Ares is hired to train their military, etc., or else as happened in Tsimshian - MCT is hired to handle everything, and is given mining rights as payment, thus allowing it to loot the place until it's a slag heap), then item B doesn't enter into it.  But if the corporation itself actually has to go around collecting taxes and handling voting and stuff, then it applies.

[iduno]

Knight is not the only one WHO is getting on in years, so is Richard Villiers and Nakatomi ( Renraku, formerly of Fuchi with Villiers ). Honestly it's time for some of these old geezers to bite the bullet.
[/quote]

Well if the Kusanagi Protocol is canon...

[Crimsondude]

The Corporate Court's version is basically that it's a no-no if the corporation is either a) exposed as the reason behind the government's overthrow, or b) has to take over governing the country itself.  The first exposes corporate power too blatantly (and people still do love their countries, let me tell ya), while the second is a loss-leader to the bottom line.  If there is a puppet government in line, who'll take the taxes and pay the corporation to execute a service (e.g. Renraku handles Republica Bananica's grid, Shiawase handles the garbage collection, Ares is hired to train their military, etc., or else as happened in Tsimshian - MCT is hired to handle everything, and is given mining rights as payment, thus allowing it to loot the place until it's a slag heap), then item B doesn't enter into it.  But if the corporation itself actually has to go around collecting taxes and handling voting and stuff, then it applies.

Sounds reasonable, but the lawyer in me wants to leave it for the Court to decide. ;-)

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Sounds reasonable, but the lawyer in me wants to leave it for the Court to decide. ;-)

Since they're judge, jury, and prosecution, they pretty much do so anyhow ...

[Xexanoth]

Considering there are a lot of mentions of AA-Corps getting together to create a new AAA-Corp on a level of one of the 3 Big Ones,
maybe NeoNet and Evo both will simply get a slap on the wrist, then the new AAA comes and Horizon gets kicked off for being to small.
...and then Horizon and Ares fuse and we got 4 Big Ones(or 5 if NeoNet doesn't get slapped hard enough) instead of 3, which would create a lot of work for runners   

However if a Corp gets hit, it's gonna be NeoNet, the only ones gaining more from going after Evo instead of NeoNet would be Shiawase because of the Cyber/Bodyware competition and NeoNet.

[Mirikon]

Heh. SOMEONE is going to have to pay for Boston, Xexanoth. This is the same as Chicago when it became Bug City. The only difference is that the blame can pretty easily be laid on someone's doorstep this time. (With bug city, the Universal Brotherhood had been destroyed as an entity, and the bugs didn't really have corporate holdings people could raid.)

There's the costs of the quarantine. The Billions (more likely TRILLIONS) of nuyen lost either in damages, insurance, lost revenue, and more. Hundreds of Thousands of people possibly being host to pieces of Deus, a dragon, or both. And the list goes on. No, someone will have to pay the piper, and it is going to be a lot worse than a slap on the wrist.

As for Horizon going down because it is too small? Horizon was smaller than some AAs when it GOT that AAA status. AAA doesn't go to the ten biggest megacorps in the world (although that tends to happen right quick, if they aren't), but to those who can convince the Court to give them a seat at the table. Horizon's not in a weak enough position to be forced out, especially since they've been cozying up with Ares lately, and have largely recovered from the Az-Am war.

[Nightmare]

That and Horizon has recently been going on a takeover spree to make sure they aren't sitting on that precarious "too small to be a Triple A" ledge.  Also, I'm pretty sure Cline has some type of dirty laundry on the Court or some of those on the court  that he had either an AI or technomancer data mine from files considered lost during either the Crash of '29 or Crash 2.0.  Would explain how Horizon and Cline went from being a single A to a Triple A with one closed door meeting of the Court.

[Wakshaani]

Whaaaaat? Horizon involved in some kind of shenannigans?! The devil you say!

[Nightmare]

I know! It's so against who they are...

[DragginSPADE]

I have no idea how the writers will select which megacorp falls, but in my humble opinion, for both setting plausibility and story potential it should be Evo. 

Neonet would take the fall if there was any justice in the world, but that would be the same megacorp falling for the third time so too boring. Also Shadowrun is a dystopia so the just option probably won't happen.

Evo with their transhumanism and the Dickens project can be easily framed to be responsible for Boston.  The Japanacorps would all support blaming them as this would eliminate a corp they still view as a traitor to their culture, and this plot would play well into the new unity of Japanacorps against external threats.  With the most meta-friendly megacorp taken down by the Japanese corporations, racist organizations around the world would probably find it easier to operate.  And seriously, what idiot sees a body snatching nano-virus and says "Here, come make a home in with us!"

Aztechnology falling would open up a LOT of story potential dealing with the chaos caused by the sudden power vacuum in North America.  On the other hand, they're such a great villain I'd hate to see them go.

Horizon is one I'd LIKE to see gone, just because it never should have been created out of nothing in the first place for 4th ed.  But I doubt they'll get the boot.

All the other corps make even less sense for getting destroyed/downgraded.

[Xexanoth]

Framing EVO wouldn't be that easy, the whole thing started at the NeoNet Headqaurters and people "know" it(you know,  the whole Dragon thing).

Not to mention that both S-K and MTC have a big interest in seeing NeoNet fall, after all why have the big 3 when you can have the big 2,
and Mitsuhama certainly could need the lack of a third competitioner now that they are Lofwyrs prime target.

The Japanacorps would all support blaming them as this would eliminate a corp they still view as a traitor to their culture, and this plot would play well into the new unity of Japanacorps against external threats.

Going by Market Panic, Mitsuhama taking the Number 1 Corporation spot pretty much destroyed that unity.

As for the other corps, Ares and Horizon could gain a nice boost if they can gobble up former NeoNet holdings, if they spin it as "Saving the companies from foreign companies that went atfer NeoNet" it gets them positive publicity too, which would be especially good for Ares.
And Aztechnology always likes to increase it's power in NA.

Then theres also the much simpler PR standpoint, if they hit EVO it's bad PR with the "lesser" metahumans, why risk that when you have an easier target.
Simply going by a gain-loss for the corps, most have more to gain and less to loose from kicking NeoNet then EVO.

The exceptions would of course be NeoNet, Shiawase because of Bodyware and maybe Renraku.

Wuxing propably doesn't care either way.

Aztechnology falling would open up a LOT of story potential dealing with the chaos caused by the sudden power vacuum in North America.  On the other hand, they're such a great villain I'd hate to see them go.

They survived one omega order and they have dam good PR, why bother when there are easier targets around.