Do you remember seeing that photo of a grinning monkey from a couple years back? It’s a selfie of a crested black macaque taken by the monkey herself, in Indonesia on a camera owned by British photographer David Slater. For Slater, the photo was his biggest hit of the year.
But now Wikipedia says the photo credit should say “Public Domain,” meaning Slater no longer has claim to the monkey’s selfie, one of his biggest money makers. Wikipedia’s argument boils down to this: Slater owned the camera, but the monkey took the shot.
Apparently, the monkey then bought a plane ticket to the UK and uploaded the photos to the internet, then sold usage rights to dozens of media outlets, “Credit: Macaque.”
However, animals aren’t allowed to own intellectual property, so the photo defaulted to the public domain.
Now Slater needs to lawyer up to reclaim the rights to his photo. That process could cost him tens of thousands of dollars (or pounds) and could end up setting a precedent that four-legged art is automatically in the public domain. Nobody tell that portrait-painting elephant.
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