PETA sues to give monkey the copyright of selfie photos

[KamaAina]

Not The Onion!!

http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/PETA-sues-to-give-monkey-the-copyright-of-selfie-6521520.php

A macaque monkey who took now-famous selfie photographs should be declared the copyright owner of the photos, rather than the nature photographer who positioned the camera, animal-rights activists contend in a novel lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The suit was filed in federal court in San Francisco by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. It seeks a court order allowing PETA to administer all proceeds from the photos for the benefit of the monkey, which it identified as 6-year-old Naruto, and other crested macaques living in a reserve on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi....

However, the photos have been widely distributed elsewhere by outlets, including Wikipedia, which contend that no one owns the copyright to the images because they were taken by an animal, not a person. Slater, who is exploring legal action against some of those outlets, said he was "very saddened" by PETA's lawsuit because he considers himself an advocate of animal rights.

Last year, the U.S. Copyright Office issued an updated compendium of its policies, including a section stipulating that it would register copyrights only for works produced by human beings. It specified that works produced by animals, whether a photo taken by a monkey or a mural painted by an elephant, would not qualify.

[BlueJazz]

1. If I were the Photographer, I'd get a release form, hand the monkey a pen, have him/her...

..sign it (ok Scribble something) and swear up in down in court that I got it's permission to do what I want with the photos.

(It would be just as silly)

[jberryhill]

5. You raise a good point

Ownership rights also include the rights to sell or assign those rights.

Can the macaque own something it cannot agree to sell?

[snooper2]

2. PETA LOL

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxNjAw/z/aHEAAOSwfcVUEQb2/$_35.JPG

[Nye Bevan]

3. Ah, those wacky PETA folks never disappoint.

I mean, why do boring stuff like pushing for better conditions for livestock on farms when you can advocate for the rights of selfie-taking chimps?

[KamaAina]

4. It's not even a chimp

it's a macaque monkey, a few rungs down on the evolutionary scale (and the origin of the racial slur macaca, which sunk George Allen's Senate bid )

[Orrex]

6. The monkey can't give legal consent

Just like the thousands of animals that PETA kills annually can't give legal consent.

[Travis_0004]

7. I think the monkey should be given copyright as soon as he shows up to court on his own accord.

[cloudbase]

8. Next up:

The trunk monkey gets paid scale and is to receive royalty checks.

[Dr. Strange]

9. On the bright side...

at least they're not comparing the monkey's lack of copyright to the holocaust.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150922/11063332329/monkey-business-peta-sues-behalf-monkey-selfie-claims-copyright-belongs-to-monkey.shtml

[clarice]

10. That's why there should be a monkey union...how long can this go on !!!!???? nt

[ripcord]

11. The reason the monkee doesn't have a cipyright

Because he never filed for copyright protections, he has no one but himself to blame.