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A US JUDGE has ruled that a macaque monkey who snapped grinning selfies that went viral last year does not own the copyright to the photographs.
Activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) brought the case in San Francisco on behalf of Indonesian simian Naruto, who shot to fame last year after a photographer published pictures taken by the monkey with his camera.
PETA petitioned the court to have the macaque “declared the author and owner of his photograph”.
But in a preliminary ruling yesterday, Judge William Orrick said that “while Congress and the President can extend the protection of law to animals as well as humans, there is no indication that they did so in the Copyright Act”.
The photos were taken in 2011 on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi by British nature photographer David Slater. He later published a book of his photographs, which included two selfies taken by six-year-old Naruto.
The San Francisco-based company that published the book — Blurb — was named as a co-defendant in the case.
Lost a lot of money
In filing the lawsuit, PETA had argued that “US copyright law doesn’t prohibit an animal from owning a copyright, and since Naruto took the photos, he owns the copyright, as any human would.”
Slater insists he owns the rights since he set up the tripod and walked away for a few minutes only to find out that the monkey had grabbed his camera and snapped the images.
When the copyright controversy erupted, he said that the widespread distribution of the photos online had cost him a lot of money by robbing his book of potential sales.
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Perhaps Simon should take over the Housing Minister position.
Every story about the homeless has a real live human being behind it. Some like this guy make it out of the gutter, alcohol and the rent situation put him in the gutter.
Yet all we hear from FG supporters here is slander with no bounds, as they queue up to pour their vitriolic bile on anyone who’s situation has being highlighted. Everyone is a sponger, a freeloader, wants a mythical free house, never worked in their life. All to justify the neglect of the poor and less well off, and deflect on the huge damage done to society by government policies.
@Dave Doyle: It’s so true it would make you sick. This country is in one horrible mess and the worst thing is it would take something on a revolutionary scale to change it.
Well done to simon services… the goverment s minister regina Doherity has decided to not give xmas bonus this year is she fr real ??? Pay rises were given to herself and her cohorts but the rest of us are crippled with high taxs we are paying the higest mortgage rates in the EU.. car tax insurance is also higher..half the country are homeless ..hope this goverment including fianna fail who are supporting their decisions are destroyed in the next election…they are not fit fr purpose
@Mari: we are not the most expensive country in the EU, also renting is more prominent in other countries. Yes we have a massive problem with homelessness and people living in emergency accommodation we are not the worst in EU either. This does not mean I think anyone should be let off the hook for the shambles the country is in, but the people here need to take off the rose tinted glasses
@GClare: we absolutely are one of the most expensive countries for gas, electricity, insurance, food, housing and so on.
When you include taxes we get little in return by way of services for all, such as healthcare.
The only person with rose tinted glasses here is you. You clearly haven’t been living in Ireland the last 10years with that attitude.
@Regina Farrell: By your rationale, the government should have their salaries suspended. Certainly housing, justice, healthcare, transport and the Taoiseach. Manipulating the system and doing sweet effay in return.
@Mari: since when is 10,000 People half the country?
Fair play to Geoff! Onwards..Great admiration for a person homeless after 7 years and to come back. With the right people anything is possible!
@paul christopher cox: Indeed, imagine if FF/FG/labour gave as much of a care, what might be possible… Geoff and many more might’ve been contributing to our society if our governments had actually come up with solutions instead creating the problems in the first place.
Pity they don’t finance ngo’s the same way public servants are. Staff at NGO’s are the cheap version of public services and are expected to do similar work.
@Brian Smith: now that really does depend on the NGO; take a look into background of charities, remember the scandal a few years ago, that was not made up!!! And it is world wide not just Ireland
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