> Virtually every incorporated non-governmental entity [...] have
> the power of imposing penalties on physical persons (which cannot
> be reciprocated i.e. a physical person cannot impose a penalty
> on a corporate entity.) ...
There are a few cases where they *can* be "penalized" (using your definition of penalty).
For instance: If you lose control of "your" credit card and charges are made that you did not authorize, typically you can penalize the bank that issued the card for being stupid enough to have created a piece of plastic that can be used to get goods and services without a reasonable authentication scheme by forcing them to pay for the transaction.
Mwa-ha-hah!
/jordan