January 12, 2013
I am writing to urge the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue a rule soon requiring publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their political spending.
This can't fully correct the harm done by the Supreme Court ruling that we can call Corporations United. It won't, for instance, stop foreign entities from routing money indirectly to Super PACs. But it will be a big improvement and it is easy to do.
The rule should require disclosure in a standardized manner and place that is publicly accessible on the Internet.
Richard Stallman
Cambridge, MA