Monkey Selfies: Questioning Copyright Laws and Constitutional Applications
Last week, American animal rights organization the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, more commonly known as PETA, filed a novel lawsuit in San Francisco’s Federal Court on behalf of a macaque monkey for the copyright ownership over “selfies” it took dating back to 2011. The suit requests a court order to give PETA allowance to administer proceeds from the photos to benefit the monkey and the macaque reserve to which it resides. The 6-year-old macaque monkey named Naruto inhabits in a protected sanctuary on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. In 2011 British photographer, David Slater made a trip to the island to photograph the macaques for a self-published book titled, “Wildlife Personalities,” through San Francisco-based self-publishing company Blurb, which Naruto’s selfie was included.
Naruto independently took the selfie on an unattended camera …show more content…
Under the idea that my property’s property is my property, if ownership of Naruto can be given or assigned to the Sulawesi government then they would have more claims to the copyright then most. On the other hand, as a fellow photographer and artist, I am sympathetic to both positions David Slater and Naruto are in, Slater more so than Naruto. The selfie was taken with Slater’s camera, saved to his memory card, uploaded on his computer for editing, and published by his company in his book. All of that said, that does not mea that he has express ruling over the copyright, it is a non-copyrightable work, but he does have as much right to use it as he see fit for personal or commercial growth of his company and financial
Last week, American animal rights organization the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, more commonly known as PETA, filed a novel lawsuit in San Francisco’s Federal Court on behalf of a macaque monkey for the copyright ownership over “selfies” it took dating back to 2011. The suit requests a court order to give PETA allowance to administer proceeds from the photos to benefit the monkey and the macaque reserve to which it resides. The 6-year-old macaque monkey named Naruto inhabits in a protected sanctuary on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. In 2011 British photographer, David Slater made a trip to the island to photograph the macaques for a self-published book titled, “Wildlife Personalities,” through San Francisco-based self-publishing company Blurb, which Naruto’s selfie was included.
Naruto independently took the selfie on an unattended camera …show more content…
Under the idea that my property’s property is my property, if ownership of Naruto can be given or assigned to the Sulawesi government then they would have more claims to the copyright then most. On the other hand, as a fellow photographer and artist, I am sympathetic to both positions David Slater and Naruto are in, Slater more so than Naruto. The selfie was taken with Slater’s camera, saved to his memory card, uploaded on his computer for editing, and published by his company in his book. All of that said, that does not mea that he has express ruling over the copyright, it is a non-copyrightable work, but he does have as much right to use it as he see fit for personal or commercial growth of his company and financial