Opinion article on a proposed bill in the Arizona state legislature that would make publishers and producers financially responsible if their more untoward releases could be “proven” to have influenced a crime.

There is just so much wrong with that concept, and the article does a good job explaining as much. However, the article draws a hard-line I am almost equally uncomfortable with:

But, ultimately, it is the perpetrator of violence who must be punished for what he did. Nichols’ bill mitigates that responsibility. Suddenly, the criminal is the victim: The music made him do it; the movie made him do it. Others are responsible. Not him.

Such a development is sick. A rapist is a rapist, not the victim of a rap video.

In the context of the proposed legislation, I totally agree. But that statement does not encourage the kind of discussion we ought to be having concerning personal vs. corporate responsibility today. Where does one leave off and the other begin?