Monkey Selfie: Is Copyright Law Monkey Business?

In July of 2011, British photographer David Slater traveled to North Sulawesi, Indonesia, to photograph the local wildlife. Chancing upon a barrel of monkeys, he set out to capture unique shots. Noticing the monkeys were curious about his camera apparatus, he left his tripod armed with his camera. The result was rather astounding; one particular monkey took some cheeky selfies, unbeknownst to him that he would soon be the Ansel Adams of the animal kingdom.

Slater claims that one picture was truly exceptional, and I’m sure you’d agree. He states the monkey’s expression was one of unrestrained joy and self-awareness.

It’s no surprise that he had big hopes for the snapshot, imagining it would star on the cover of National Geographic. His agents distributed them to various news sources. After being published by the Daily Mail, it went viral.

Dispute with Wikipedia

In 2014, Wikipedia uploaded the million-dollar pic (or so Slater would have initially hoped) to its site, and to his dismay, tagged it as public domain. Why? Because animals can’t own the copyright. Not even with a smile like Naruto’s!

PETA enters the Mix

A year later in 2015, the campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) filed a lawsuit against Slater on behalf of Naruto, claiming copyright over it.

In 2016, the trial judge concluded that, even if the monkey took selfies through “independent, autonomous action,” the suits wouldn’t stick as only humans have to stand in a court of law, with animals being unable to sue for copyright infringement.

Strangely enough, PETA appealed the call.

To the dismay of the legal world and general public alike, the bizarre dispute was settled outside of court. According to public records, 25 percent of all proceeds from the image’s royalties must go towards the Indonesian sanctuary.

Image Source: Taringa.net