Councils and Corporations

When does someone give up his private legal rights? I was exchanging emails earlier today, with someone who lives in the Klang Valley in Malaysia. He has been complaining about illegal billboards coming up all over the place, intruding on public areas like children’s playgrounds. The local councils play official thugs and would not give him or other complainants, light of day. The advertisements are by large corporations. My correspondent has written to these corporations, only to be confronted with the expected silence. Obviously something is rotten in the Council (sorry for stating the painfully obvious). Something is rotten in these corporations, too. He now intends to arm himself with spray cans and be a graffiti artist. His canvas is going to be these billboards. I thought illegally erected they may be, they remain private property. The advertising agents/PR companies/advertisers own these billboards. If my friend spray paints them, it is like he finds a car illegally parked and proceeds to spray juicy graffiti all over this car. The owner of the car can jolly well sue him to recover expenses incurred in undoing his artwork. So can the owners of these billboards. My friend contends however that this is the only way to invite action from otherwise contented (wonder why?) council officials. If I were my friend, I would be very cautious about breaking a law (private law against trespass and damage to property) in order to highlight the breaking of other laws. That would be coming down to fight on their level. Fighting in the gutter, I cannot. My friend however, has been a campaigner for a long time. He is known for it. Malaysian Ralph Nader, he is. Let’s give him our support. Let’s start with thinking about a good defence for him if he is sued. Can we mount this argument that as these corporations have practiced corruption leading to deprivation of enjoyment of pubic amenities, they are estopped from complaining against actions taken to restore such enjoyment? Have these corporations given up their private legal rights? It’s like the truck driver who rams into the car parked in his driveway. Can the owner of that rammed car be taken to have given up his private legal rights and is estopped from complaining against the truck driver? Sounds terrible. Truckloads of research required for this one… Luxury of a blog.