Monkey Selfie: copyright focusing in on animal rights

In September 2015 PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), filed a lawsuit in US federal court to grant Naruto (a free crested macaque monkey in Indonesia), the author and copyright owner of his famous selfie picture.

Source: Associated Press

Naruto took some flattering selfies using a British nature photographer’s camera.  The photos gained popularity and PETA was wanting to use proceeds of the photo to aid Naruto and his fellow macaques who are in danger of being killed from hunters in a nearby village.  Their habitat continues to disappear because of human encroachment.

A federal judge ruled that Naruto is not the copyright owner of the photos.  The debate stems from wordings using in the Copyright Act and if the law extends to animals as well as humans.  PETA has 20 days to file an appeal.

Read the entire article from The Guardian by clicking here.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2016 at 7:30 am. It is filed under Round Pixel News and tagged with industry news, photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.