PETA Sues Photographer on Monkey’s Behalf to Give Monkey Copyright

Slater, who is exploring legal action against some of those outlets, said he was “very saddened” by PETA’s lawsuit because he considers himself an advocate of animal rights.

This turned into a photo shoot of selfies as one monkey in particular clicked away resulting in grinning monkey mugs looking at this newfangled piece of technology.

According to PETA, highly intelligent crested macaques – who, like humans, are vision-dominant, possess advanced reasoning abilities and delicately and purposefully manipulate objects with their hands – are critically endangered.

The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) claims that the legal action, which challenges United Kingdom photographer David Slater’s rights over the image, “could see the first-ever photo-property ownership for a non-human primate”. “A monkey only pressed a button of a camera set up on a tripod – a tripod I positioned and held throughout the shoot”.

“In the case of a monkey’s selfie by itself, that photograph immediately and forever falls into the public domain, and can be used by anyone, without permission”.

Slater, who has worked with PETA in the past, also said, “I am obviously bemused at PETA’s stunt but also angry as well as sad”.

David John Slater is accused of falsely claiming he’s the creator of the photo, despite his having publicly acknowledged that the monkey shot the photo with a camera to which he had access. A few of the pictures have become viral images, with one in particular becoming the epitome of a monkey selfie!

PETA suggests the wording of the act “is sufficiently broad so as to permit the protections of the law to extend to any original work, including those created by Naruto”.

The photographer is more concerned he will be forced to take time off work to attend the hearing in the U.S., and the associated costs, which could run to several thousands of pounds. Through a self-publishing company Blurb, he released a book titled “Wildlife Personalities”, which contains Naruto’s selfie photos. It is on the cover of that book where the famous Naruto’s selfie appears. He is sympathetic to the cause of animal plights and he ekes out a meager living by taking these pictures.

However, the photos have been widely distributed elsewhere by outlets, including Wikipedia, which contend that no one owns the copyright to the images because they were taken by an animal, not a person.