In addition to his other villainies, the Joker is also a fan of IP. In the Batman Animated Series episode “The Laughing Fish,” the Joker fills Gotham Harbor with chemicals that give all the fish his characteristic grin, so that when fishers try to sell them (the fish are otherwise safe to eat) he can sue for copyright infringement. (In the original comic it was trademark infringement, which makes a smidgen more sense.) And in a later episode, “Joker’s Wild,” he decides to destroy a Joker-themed casino because they’re cashing in on his image. Is there no end to his perfidy?
Given real-world IP laws, I’m not sure why Warner Bros. allows these episodes to be hosted on YouTube or how long they will continue to do so; enjoy them while you can! (I like the earlier episode better because it has Harley Quinn in it. Everything’s better with Harley!)
Tags: Humor, IP, Left-Libertarian, Science Fiction
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You could rationalize the first part about suing for copyright infringement as an effort to demonstrate the absurdity of IP. The second part about destroying casinos sounds a lot more like what IP is about.
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Everything’s better with Harley Quinn
Did you see how they portrayed her in Return of the Joker? An interesting outcome.
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One of the rambling threads in Michael Crichton’s Next involves corporate advertising on fish.
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Why are you endorsing tacky behavior?
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Harley’s in the second cartoon too; she hangs out on the casino floor with the Joker.
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I thought those were just casino employees dressed up as Harley.
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About Roderick T. Long
The Empirical Me
I’m Roderick T. Long, Professor of Philosophy at Auburn University. I’m an Aristotelean/Wittgensteinian in philosophy and a left-libertarian market anarchist in social theory. (More about me here.) This blog, Austro-Athenian Empire, is a continuation of my earlier blog, archived here.
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