‘Monkey selfie’ is ape’s copyright, claims PETA lawsuit

The copyright to a photo of a grinning Indonesian monkey, known as the 'monkey selfie', belongs to the mammal in the picture, the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has claimed in a lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, filed Monday, September 21, at the US District Court for the Northern District of California, UK photographer David Slater falsely claimed that he owns the copyright to the image and reproduced it in a book called “ Wildlife Personalities”.

Self-publishing platform Blurb, which Slater published the book on in 2014, is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The 'monkey selfie' was one several photographs taken by the mammal, a macaque ape.

During a 2011 expedition to Indonesia, Slater left his camera unattended and Naruto, the name of the monkey, started taking a series of photographs, including a perfectly framed photo of him smiling into the camera.

Slater has publicly admitted he did not take the picture, but he registered the image with the US Copyright Office in 2012.

PETA, which has referred to the images as “monkey selfies” in the lawsuit, said that the copyright does not belong to Slater, but to Naruto instead.

“The ‘monkey selfies’ are digital photographs fixed in a tangible medium and are original works of authorship created by Naruto,” the complaint said.

Because Naruto is incapable of asserting the claim, PETA said it is seeking to administer “the sale, licensing, and other commercial use of monkey selfies”.

Any royalties from the sale of the image, PETA said, should “be used solely for the benefit of Naruto, his family and his community, including the preservation of their habitat”.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has placed Naruto’s species on its list of threatened animals. The global population of the species is estimated to be between 4,000 and 6,000.

PETA is demanding that Naruto is declared the owner of the copyright and that it is paid any damages that have resulted from the sale of the image.

The organisation said it would spend any damages awarded on conservation.

Last year, the 'monkey selfie' was at the centre of a dispute between Wikimedia, the non-profit owner of Wikipedia, and Slater.

Slater asked for the image to be removed from its database of images that are said to be in the public domain.

Wikimedia refused and said Slater did not own the copyright. Slater told WIPR’s sister site TBO that Wikimedia was acting “ disgracefully”.

In a blog post published by PETA today, September 23, the group said: “The decision in this case could be the first time that a non-human animal has ever been declared the owner of property, rather than being declared a piece of property.

“We could consequently witness a ground-breaking step forward in society—the acknowledgement that animal rights should be recognised for the sake of animals and not for the exploitative benefit of humans,” the group added.

Slater told WIPR that PETA’s lawsuit is a “publicity stunt” and has vowed to “not give up the fight” in protecting his ownership of the image. He added that he wished PETA had contacted him prior to the lawsuit because he too “supports animal rights”.

If PETA is successful, Slater said that the decision would “rewrite authorship” as understood under US copyright law.