Posted on 09/22/2015 9:05:36 AM PDT by Fractal Trader
A macaque monkey who took now-famous selfie photographs should be declared the copyright owner of the photos, rather than the nature photographer who positioned the camera, animal-rights activists contend in a novel lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The suit was filed in federal court in San Francisco by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. It seeks a court order allowing PETA to administer all proceeds from the photos for the benefit of the monkey, which it identified as 6-year-old Naruto, and other crested macaques living in a reserve on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
The photos were taken during a 2011 trip to Sulawesi by British nature photographer David Slater. Through San Francisco-based self-publishing company Blurb, he has published a book called ‘‘Wildlife Personalities’’ that includes the ‘‘monkey selfie’’ photos.
However, the photos have been widely distributed elsewhere by outlets, including Wikipedia, which contend that no one owns the copyright to the images because they were taken by an animal, not a person. Slater, who is exploring legal action against some of those outlets, said he was ‘‘very saddened’’ by PETA’s lawsuit because he considers himself an advocate of animal rights.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
Animals have zero legal standing to bring suit, nor can they establish any rightful claim to the proceeds. PETA should be fined for filing a frivolous action.
The owner of the camera should charge the monkey a hefty fee for using his equipment!
OMG! What bull crap!!!
If he doesn't call, then clearly he has no interest.
They have the right to remain silent.
They have the right to sacrifice their lives for our benefit or amusement.
The animals anyways. Humans have real rights. Animals don't. We can write laws about not subjecting them to unnecessary cruelty, and I agree with those laws, but they don't have rights.
It’s People Eating Tasty Animals setting themselves up for the dough.
The photographer owns the copyright in *this* country. Not sure about where it was taken.
Each use of his pic should be worth about 12 cents. That’s the going rate for the Super Terrific Happy Hour anyway.
Give a monkey a phone and a pen...
:)
Animals do not have property rights. Only people. Liberals desperately want animals to have property rights, so that they can take them away from people.
I saw a poll several years ago that asked whether animals had the same reasoning and cognitive abilities as people. Twenty-nine percent said yes. I concluded it is partially correct; animals do have the same reasoning abilities as people. Or at least 29% of them.
Do the rocks in my yard get rights now?
How about the weeds?
Compensation for the monkey should NOT go to PETA.
It should go directly to the monkey and be in the form of peanuts, medical provisions to make sure that he doesn’t hurt his poo throwing hand, and plenty of paper so that he can write his Global Warming theories for the pope.
Couldn’t agree with you more. But many people who want rights for animals don’t want rights for unborn babies. So their arguments can be used both ways.
PETA is so yesterday.
Google ARCUS Foundation. Read the Wikipedia entry, especially its mission statement.
Executive Director of ARCUS is Kevin Jennings, Obama’s erstwhile Safe Schools Czar. Fired after public outcry when he turned out to be a big-time perv.
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