8/08/2014

The monkey selfie legal battle

The famous monkey selfie photograph has caused a legal battle between the camera´s owner, David J Slater, and Wikimedia. Wiki management claims the photo is available for free distribution because the monkey pressed the shutter. Mr Slater claims he owns the copyright because it was his camera, and he was taking monkey pictures.


The monkey selfie Photo: David J Slater/Caters

I tend to agree with Mr Slater. If he loses his legal battle all indy photographers are screwed if they allow their camera to be used by monkeys.  

This Australian  photographer  now faces $15 thousand* in legal bills as he tries to secure his rights to the monkey selfie. Popular opinion on this matter seems to be divided, with 43 % thinking the copyright belongs to Mr. Slater, while 41 % think it belongs to the monkey.  


Poll results from The Telegraph, 
(to  vote: Telegraph Poll is here)

By the way, the monkey is an Indonesian macaque. From the looks of it, I think it may be a crested macaque, but I didn´t research its family tree. If we go by the poll results that macaque owns almost  half the copyright for its selfie. This means the macaque would be the richest monkey in the world. Like they say in New Zealand, that´s a lot of kiwis.

*10000  british pounds, 10800 euros, 90000 yuan

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