There is no doubt that this is a great photo of a crested black macaque monkey, a small primate found in Indonesia. The photographer can be proud of his considerable skill and patience. But, unfortunately there is no photographer! It is a selfie taken by the monkey and the image is more serendipity than skill.
Here is the back-story: David Slater, a British photographer traveled to Indonesia to take photos of this particular breed of macaque. According to a British newspaper, the Telegraph, this monkey “came up to investigate and hijacked a camera, and took hundreds of selfies”. Most of the photos were of poor quality but this one was spectacular. So, Slater licensed the photo and it began showing up on several sites, including Wikimedia Commons as a public domain photo. But, the photographer advised Wikimedia that he held the copyright to the photo. Wikimedia refused to take it down saying that the monkey took the photo and as an animal, cannot hold a copyright.
And, Wikimedia is probably correct, as in most of the world animals are considered as property or chattel. And, in addition this animal is wild and quite distant from a person to whom a copyright would be allowed. But, even as the photographer paid for the equipment, the trip, and the post-processing, the monkey took the money shot. A good question to ask now is not who has a right to the photo but why the photographer did not take other photos that probably could have been as good as or better than the monkey.
In an ironic twist, the United States Office of Copyright posted and update to the copyright law here on 22 August. “A copyright cannot be held by an animal including a monkey”. Smile and say banana…
Here is the back-story: David Slater, a British photographer traveled to Indonesia to take photos of this particular breed of macaque. According to a British newspaper, the Telegraph, this monkey “came up to investigate and hijacked a camera, and took hundreds of selfies”. Most of the photos were of poor quality but this one was spectacular. So, Slater licensed the photo and it began showing up on several sites, including Wikimedia Commons as a public domain photo. But, the photographer advised Wikimedia that he held the copyright to the photo. Wikimedia refused to take it down saying that the monkey took the photo and as an animal, cannot hold a copyright.
And, Wikimedia is probably correct, as in most of the world animals are considered as property or chattel. And, in addition this animal is wild and quite distant from a person to whom a copyright would be allowed. But, even as the photographer paid for the equipment, the trip, and the post-processing, the monkey took the money shot. A good question to ask now is not who has a right to the photo but why the photographer did not take other photos that probably could have been as good as or better than the monkey.
In an ironic twist, the United States Office of Copyright posted and update to the copyright law here on 22 August. “A copyright cannot be held by an animal including a monkey”. Smile and say banana…
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