Court denies copyright for selfie-taking monkey

SAN FRANCISCO — U.S. copyright law does not allow lawsuits that seek to give animals rights to photographs or other original work, limiting such claims to humans, a federal appeals court ruled Monday in a novel case over a series of wellknown selfies taken by a monkey in Indonesia.

The decision by a unanimous, three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that also dismissed the lawsuit by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals against a photographer whose camera was used by a crested macaque to take the photos in 2011.

PETA’s 2015 suit against David Slater sought financial control of the photographs — including a now-famous selfie of the monkey’s toothy grin — for the benefit of the animal named Naruto in Indonesia.

Jeff Kerr, general counsel for PETA, said the group was reviewing the opinion and had not decided yet whether it would appeal.

“Naruto should be considered the author and copyright owner, and he shouldn’t be treated any differently from any other creator simply because he happens to not be human,” Kerr said.

The problem for Naruto, however, was that copyright law did not “expressly authorize animals to file copyright infringement suits,” Ninth Circuit Judge Carlos Bea said in the ruling. The judge said the law appeared to reserve that power only for humans.

The court ruled that Slater was entitled to attorneys’ fees in the case and sent it back to the district court to determine the amount.