Australian Court Rules That Cartoon Characters Are People

Justice Michael Adams of the New South Wales (Australia) Supreme Court has ruled that cartoon characters are people too. The judge’s ruling came in the case of Alan John McEwan, who was convicted on child pornography charges stemming from his possession of sexually explicit cartoons featuring Bart, Lisa and Maggie from The Simpsons.

Justice Adams explained his determination thusly: “The mere fact that the figure depicted departed from a realistic representation in some respects of a human being did not mean that such a figure was not a ‘person’.”

McEwan was convicted, fined $3,000, and placed on a good behavior bond.

Really, this is ridiculous. Setting aside the issue of freedom of artistic expression, does this Australian precedent now also open the path to cartoon characters having civil rights such as voting rights, eligibility for unemployment benefits when their publication ends, and the right to marry other “people,” as several thousand Japanese citizens wish to do?

Source: ICv2

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