PARRAMATTA, NEW SOUTH WALES — Cartoon characters are persons under Australian law, according to a New South Wales Supreme Court Ruling.That’s very bad news for Alan John McEwan, whose conviction on child pornography charges stemming from possession of explicit images depicting characters from the animated TV show “The Simpsons” was upheld by the court.
McEwan, convicted in Parramatta Local Court in February, sought to have the lower court’s ruling overturned on the grounds no actual children were harmed in production of the images. The high court didn’t buy the argument.
“In my view, the magistrate was correct in determining that, in respect of both the Commonwealth and the NSW offences, the word ‘person’ included fictional or imaginary characters…,” Justice Michael Adams wrote in his opinion. “…[T]he 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.’”
The justice admitted the case — the first of its kind in NSW — involved a “difficult” issue. He let stand McEwan’s conviction, a fine of Aus. $3,000 and McEwan’s placement on a good behavior bond.
