Monkeying Around With Copyright Law

Monkeying Around With Copyright Law

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is suing a British photographer on behalf of a macaque monkey named Naruto, saying that the monkey owns the copyright to a “selfie” he took of himself after grabbing the photographer’s camera.

The photographer, David Slater, was visiting the Tangkoko Batuangus Nature Reserve on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, in 2011 when he left his camera unattended on a tripod. Naruto and some other macaques then snapped what have come to be known as “monkey selfies,” which Slater published in a book called Wildlife Personalities.

The PETA suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Northern California, lays out PETA’s argument:

“Naruto has the right to own and benefit from the copyright in the Monkey Selfies in the same manner and to the same extent as any other author… While the claim of authorship by species other than homo sapiens may be novel, ‘authorship’ under the Copyright Act … is sufficiently broad so as to permit the protections of the law to extend to any original work, including those created by Naruto.”

The suit is asking that proceeds from the sale and licensing of the photos be used for the benefit of Naruto and the other macaques and to preserve their habitat.

Last year, in a dispute between Slater and Wikimedia Commons, which hosted the image of Naruto on its public domain website, the U.S. Copyright office said that it only registers copyright claims for human authorship and that neither Slater nor the macaque have a valid claim.

On January 6, 2015, a federal judge in San Francisco agreed in part, stating in a provisional opinion that Naruto cannot own the copyright to images that he took of himself. The final decision on whether Slater can claim copyright will be made by the U.S. Copyright office, which has said that works that are produced by nature, animals or plants cannot be copyrighted.

In addition, since Naruto’s selfies are currently under public domain in the U.S., the photos cannot be legally copyrighted anyway.

We can help you protect and defend your intellectual property rights at home and abroad. Contact one of the experienced Florida IP attorneys at Jurado & Farshchian, P.L., at (305) 921-0440, or email us at info@jflawfirm.com.

 

 Share

The post Monkeying Around With Copyright Law appeared first on Jurado & Farshchian, P.L. Business Lawyer, Real Estate Lawyer, Immigration Lawyer.