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How would Batman treat Intellectual property?

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djussila Posted: Wed, Sep 22 2010 8:03 AM

Would the Dark Knight spread fear for those who copy music, use trademarks illegally, or break patent laws? Or would he say "Screw it, the Joker's more important."   

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Bert replied on Wed, Sep 22 2010 10:08 AM

It depends, does any of branches of Wayne Interprises use patents and copyrights?  I don't think they ever explained Bruce Wayne's position on IP.

I had always been impressed by the fact that there are a surprising number of individuals who never use their minds if they can avoid it, and an equal number who do use their minds, but in an amazingly stupid way. - Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols
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Best. Topic. Ever.

"the obligation to justice is founded entirely on the interests of society, which require mutual abstinence from property" -David Hume
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Bert replied on Wed, Sep 22 2010 10:18 AM

Best. Topic. Ever.

I feel there should be an entire thread on Wayne Enterprises.  There's a branch in about every area of industry, either this is a free-market miracle or he's getting a lot of privileges.  Since a lot of his (early)  money comes from trust funds and inheritance, I'm sure he invested and expanded all his businesses at the right time, plus buying out other's.

I had always been impressed by the fact that there are a surprising number of individuals who never use their minds if they can avoid it, and an equal number who do use their minds, but in an amazingly stupid way. - Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols
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MaikU replied on Wed, Sep 22 2010 10:26 AM

Dustin Jussila:

Would the Dark Knight spread fear for those who copy music, use trademarks illegally, or break patent laws? Or would he say "Screw it, the Joker's more important."   

 

 

the latter..

"Dude... Roderick Long is the most anarchisty anarchist that has ever anarchisted!" - Evilsceptic

(english is not my native language, sorry for grammar.)

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djussila replied on Wed, Sep 22 2010 11:42 AM

It's hard to say what Wayne Enterprises does in general, and to say whether they use IP is even more complicated. I can't recall anything from the comics touching the issue. However, you can probably bet that Luthor's Lexcorp has an entire army of Patent lawyers. 

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Bert replied on Wed, Sep 22 2010 5:24 PM

However, you can probably bet that Luthor's Lexcorp has an entire army of Patent lawyers.

Well, not so much Luthor's anymore:

Wayne Technologies, also known as WayneTech, is the biggest division of Wayne Enterprises. It is involved in the retrieval and research of alien technology. Its main rival was LexCorp before its assets were liquidated and Wayne bought them out.

I had always been impressed by the fact that there are a surprising number of individuals who never use their minds if they can avoid it, and an equal number who do use their minds, but in an amazingly stupid way. - Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols
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Vitor replied on Wed, Sep 22 2010 6:09 PM

So, Lilburne, are you really a fan of Batman? Usually Batman's fans are nice folks.

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Yes, especially the Berlin Batman.

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Vitor replied on Wed, Sep 22 2010 8:55 PM

Oh Lil, I just got jizz in my pants thanks to you. 

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FFFFUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!

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djussila replied on Wed, Sep 22 2010 9:46 PM

Grayson Lilburne:

Yes, especially the Berlin Batman.

 

 

A great Batman villain, although a minor one, is Anarky. An anarchist (obviously) who terrorizes Gotham with his horrible anti-authoritarian free market ideas.  Roderick Long, a Senior Scholar at the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, praised Anarky as "an impressive voice for liberty in today's comics".

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Praetyre replied on Wed, Sep 22 2010 10:39 PM

I'm no comic book reader, but even I can tell there isn't going to be a single answer to this question. Comic book characters have a gazillion different versions thanks to the myriad of retcons, continuity reboots and alternate mediums (compare Adam West's Batman to the 40's serial Batman to the Golden Age, gun using, villain killing Batman to Tim Burton/Joel Schumachers Batman to Nolan's to LEGO Batman to Batman: The Animated Series to the recent Arkham Asylum video game, for just a fraction of how many versions of this iconic caped crusader there are).

Comic characters have often been coopted by particular writers to suit their own political/cultural agendas/issues-of-the-week. I wouldn't be surprised if Batman's fought Columbian drug cartels, and I remember reading an article about a version of him that fought Thai child prostitution rings. So, there's probably a Batman out there who's spoken out against the evils of digital piracy, but whether he's a well known version is beyond me.

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Merlin replied on Thu, Sep 23 2010 1:38 AM

He’d let the Joker out of Arkaham so they can fight this scourge together. Wayne is so absent form his enterprises, and yet they keep churning money, that he could have founded them only on IP rights.

The Regression theorem is a memetic equivalent of the Theory of Evolution. To say that the former precludes the free emergence of fiat currencies makes no more sense that to hold that the latter precludes the natural emergence of multicellular organisms.
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I think Bruce Wayne would just keep everything a trade secret.

Note: My knowledge of Batman world only includes the movies and "Batman: The Animated Series."

To paraphrase Marc Faber: We're all doomed, but that doesn't mean that we can't make money in the process.
Rabbi Lapin: "Let's make bricks!"
Stephan Kinsella: "Say you and I both want to make a German chocolate cake."

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