Monkey’s selfie suit settled
SAN FRANCISCO — Attorneys representing a macaque monkey have agreed to a compromise in a case where they asserted the animal owned the copyright to selfie photos it had shot with a photographer’s camera.
Under the deal, the photographer agreed to donate 25 percent of any future revenue from the images to charities dedicated to protecting crested macaques in Indonesia, said the lawyers from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals who filed the lawsuit.
Attorneys for the group and the photographer, David Slater, on Monday asked the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the case and throw out a lowercourt decision that said animals cannot own copyrights.
Andrew J. Dhuey, an attorney for Slater, declined to say how much money the photos have generated or whether Slater would keep all of the remaining 75 percent of future revenue.
“PETA and David Slater agree that this case raises important, cutting-edge issues about expanding legal rights for nonhuman animals, a goal that they both support, and they will continue their respective work to achieve this goal,” Slater and PETA said in a joint statement.
There was no immediate ruling from the 9th Circuit on the dismissal.
PETA sued on behalf of the monkey in 2015, seeking financial control of the photographs for the benefit of the monkey named Naruto that snapped the photos with Slater’s camera.
Lawyers for Slater argued that his company, Wildlife Personalities, owns worldwide commercial rights to the photos, including a now-famous selfie of the monkey’s grin.
The photos were taken during a 2011 trip to Sulawesi, Indonesia, with an unattended camera owned by Slater. Slater, who is from Wales, said the British copyright obtained for the photos by Wildlife Personalities should be honored worldwide.
US District Judge William Orrick said in a ruling in favor of Slater last year that “while Congress and the president can extend the protection of law to animals as well as humans, there is no indication that they did so in the Copyright Act”.