Visa Doesn't Endorse Copyright Infringement
Cat and I have an ongoing discussion on whether corporate vs. governmental regulation is more dangerous. She leans towards the corporate being the lesser evil, where I believe corporate regulation (that is, companies deciding policy, disregarding lobbying) is the greater evil.
Visa just announced their intention to block payments to the Russian music download site AllofMP3. AllofMP3 insists upon its legality in terms of Russian copyright law—but has promised a change in its business model, hoping for more international acceptance (of course, this will come at a price, as the downloaders are quite happy with the current system).
But is Visa's extreme measure to block payments to AllofMP3 acceptable? As a digg poster commented, Since when has it been Visa's obligation to judge business morality? While I believe that businesses should have models of moral obligation, decisions such as these should be questioned by general consumers and more closely examined by relevant subscribers. Business policies, and corporate morality policies should be easily available, and digestible to consumers, subscribers, anyone who wants them, really—public accessibility is key. Archives of past business and policy movements should be equally accessible.
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My viewpoint that governments are more scary then corporations, in relation to invasion of privacy and implementation of regulations, has more to do with the ramifications of the invasion or regulation then it does with the actual act itself. Corporations collect enormous amounts of data on large numbers of people online and elsewhere that is stored and sold for monetary gain. That is dangerous. It is also dangerous when, as your post states, corporations can make regulatory decisions about what a person can buy or view.
However, not being able to purchase music online is very different then being thrown in jail because of the contents of your blog or the types of pictures/video you post. It is also very different then having your access to the web restricted, proxied and/or monitored because the government of the country you live doesn't want you to view or transmit certain kinds of information. Yes, corporations are the ones collecting the data and, if you're a user of their services i.e. visa or even google, they can regulate what kind of services they provide or give your data over to whom ever they want (including the government) sice the notion of privacy in most collected information is virtually non-existant. This is a broken system for sure.
I am just more afraid of being thrown in jail or being shot (well, maybe not necessarily that) then having visa restrict what I buy. And while google (or a web hosting or email service could provide the data) it is the governmental interest in this data and their access to it that scares the crap out of me. Technically we live in a 'free' country, but imagine countries where that lie is not even prepetuated.