SAN FRANCISCO (AP/KMJ) — The macaque monkey who took now famous selfies, should be considered the copyright owner of the image. That’s according to civil rights activists, who are battling the British photographer who set the shot up.
The suit was filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). They want to be able to administer all the proceeds from the photos for the benefit of the monkey and others living in a reserve on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
The issue started when Wikimedia Commons posted the pictures online. The photographer who set the equipment up asked the free content website to take them down, but Wikimedia say that the shutter on the camera was pressed by the monkey so the monkey is the copyright holder.
Photographer David Slater says he’s established copyright for the images in the United Kingdom, and that copyright should be honored worldwide.
But PETA want to establish copyright on behalf of the monkey, to allow them to get the proceeds from them and use it to benefit the monkey – identified as 6 year old Naruto – and its fellow crested macaques.
“I’ve told them it’s not public domain, they’ve got no right to say that it’s public domain. A monkey pressed the button, but I did all the setting up,” said Slater, according to the National Post.
The U.S. Copyright Office updated its policy on works produced by human beings stipulating that works by animals don’t qualify for the same protection.
