Author Topic: Appeals court blasts PETA for using selfie monkey as ‘an unwitting pawn’  (Read 337 times)

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Offline Frank Cannon

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https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/24/17271410/monkey-selfie-naruto-slater-copyright-peta



Quote
On Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a copyright lawsuit brought by a selfie-taking monkey.

The parties in Naruto v. Slater settled last September, but the appellate court refused to grant their joint motion to dismiss, imposing this decision against their respective wills, for no apparent reason other than to repeatedly dunk on People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). “How do we prevent people (or organizations, like PETA) from using animals to advance their human agendas?” asked the majority in one footnote.

A close-up photo of a Sulawesi crested macaque grinning bolding at the camera went viral on the internet in 2011. According to wildlife photographer David Slater, he had left some of his equipment on the jungle floor, and the monkey had grabbed the camera and taken a selfie. PETA brought a suit against Slater and a self-publishing book company in 2015, claiming that he had infringed the monkey’s copyright by releasing Wildlife Personalities, a self-published book of photography that included the famous monkey selfie.

Why is the Ninth Circuit so mad at PETA? How could a monkey sue for copyright? Can monkeys even own copyright? Why is the monkey’s name Naruto?