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There has been much about this in the photography blogosphere but for those that haven’t heard the story, here goes. While working in an Indonesian national park, British nature photographer David Slater had his camera stolen by a macaque monkey. The Monkey was fascinated by its reflection in the lens and inadvertently took several self-portraits. The macaque was quite a good photographer too. According to Ben Davis at the Huffington Post:
The Web site Techdirt posted a short essay musing on the fact that several of the images bore a credit line attributing them to the U.K.-based Caters News Agency, for which Slater works. Copyright is generally held by the person who takes the picture, and since the author was in this case the monkey — Slater explicitly stated that he had no hand in creating the image — Techdirt wondered by what basis Caters could have acquired the copyright. Someone from the news agency promptly wrote to Techdirt to request that the images be removed from the site
Techdirt refused because they don’t believe that Caters owns the copyright to pictures taken by a monkey. As a lawyer, I happen to agree with TechDirt which is why I have no problem with posting the image here. Of course, if I get a cease and desist letter, I will have to decide whether my free speech is worth the time and effort to fight for. Unfortunately, that is the way the law often works.
TechDirt posted a very interesting analysis of copyright law. Can We Subpoena The Monkey? Why The Monkey Self-Portraits Are Likely In The Public Domain I urge you to read it. Then let me know what you think?
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