Copyright on Monkey Selfie?

By Vijay Kumar

THIS monkey took its selfie and now wants copyright.

In 2011, photographer David Slater visited a forest and left his camera on a tripod for sometime and the monkeys had a field day. A monkey came and took a selfie, by clicking the camera. Slater used the monkey selfie in his book ‘wildlife personalities'.

If a monkey takes a selfie in a forest, who owns the copyright of the photograph? One view is that since only human beings can own copyrights, the monkey cannot own it and if the monkey doesn't own it, nobody else does.

But People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) thinks otherwise. It believes that the monkey has copyright and PETA has now sued Slater in U.S. District Court in Northern California. The Complaint by PETA states,

The monkey 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;

All proceeds from the sale, licensing, and other commercial uses of the Monkey Selfies … [should] be used solely for the benefit of the monkey, his family and his community, including the preservation of their habitat;

PETA filed the suit under the legal designation “next friend,” used by those filing for those who cannot file themselves.

In his facebook post, Slater says, "Greedy PETA wishing to exploit the selfie for their own agenda. They are suing me for copyright infringement of my own photographs depicting the "monkey selfie". To use my own book "Wildlife personalities" and quotes therein to suggest I am a criminal infringing the copyright of the monkey is entertaining but sad."

It will be sometime before the court decides whether the monkey has copyright.

Tomorrow is a holiday - Eid Mubarak