Monkey Business: The Legal Battle Over Photo Rights

About two years ago, the world was captivated by one of the most bizarre legal cases ever. A monkey in the Indonesian jungle grabbed an American photographer's camera and snapped a photo of another monkey. Amusing? What followed was even more entertaining. The animal rights organization Peta filed a lawsuit to recognize the monkey as the legal owner of the photo's copyright. Photographer David Slater, of course, opposed this notion.

In January, a San Francisco court ruled that the lawsuit had no merit. The judges noted that the photographer purposely made his camera accessible to monkeys to capture photos. However, the fervent animal rights activists refuse to accept this ruling and are now filing an appeal.

"In every practical sense, the monkey is the photographer," the appeal argues. "Had a human taken these photos of the monkeys, there would be no doubt that the person would be recognized as the creator and granted copyright for the image. Nothing in copyright law limits its application solely to humans...the protection under copyright law is independent of the creator's humanity but focuses on the work's creativity."

The organization has announced their determination to continue the fight to set a legal precedent: if they win the appeal, it will be the first time an animal is declared the owner of property rights.

And what does the photographer say? "This ongoing lawsuit certainly gives me publicity," he noted dryly, "but it also costs me money because I am currently prohibited from selling the photos. Of course, Peta doesn't really care about the monkey; they're only interested in their marketing. They've driven me crazy in California, and the judges have thrown them out, yet they continue to waste vast sums of donor money on a frivolous case."