Monkey’s ‘selfie’ sparks copyright row
It could be the ‘‘selfie’’ that changes the world, the photograph that gives primates the rights of man. Or it could just be some monkey business.
A crested macaque monkey which famously took a photograph of itself in an Indonesian jungle is at the centre of a copyright row in San Francisco.
Animal rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Peta, has taken legal action on behalf of the monkey, which it calls Naruto, claiming it should be declared the owner of its own image.
That has angered British nature photographer David Slater, who had been following a troop of macaques on the island of Sulawesi in 2011 when he set up his camera. The cheeky monkey grabbed it, smiled at the reflection in the lens and pressed the buttons.
The subsequent selfies were a global phenomenon and featured in countless publications, includ- ing a book by Slater called Wildlife Personalities.
Peta is contending in a federal legal action that the ‘‘monkey selfies’’ came from a ‘‘series of pur- poseful and voluntary actions by Naruto, unaided by Slater’’. In short, the monkey owns the copyright and should be reaping the financial benefits.
Peta’s lawyer said the monkey could not, ‘‘due to inaccessibility and incapacity’’, bring its own lawsuit. It argues that ‘‘copyright law is clear: It’s not the person who owns the camera, it’s the being who took the photograph.’’
The legal claim states: ‘‘Naruto has the right to own and benefit from the copyright . . . in the same manner and to the same extent as any other author.’’
However, guidance from the United States copyright office says it will only register copyrights for works produced by human beings.
Peta argues that is only an opinion, and that if the monkeys can raise money through selfies they can help to protect themselves. Numbers have dropped sharply in recent years.
Slater said yesterday that he was the intellect behind the photographs. ‘‘I set the whole thing up. A monkey only pressed a button of a camera set up on a tripod, a tripod I positioned and held throughout the shot.’’