In the summer of 2011, a female crested black macaque got her hands on a photographer's camera and took a selfie that would be cemented as the greatest monkey selfie ever. Little did she know that this photo would result in a copyright infringement case three years later.
British nature photographer David Slater, whose camera was snatched by the monkey, asked the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization, to remove the image from its vast collection of royalty-free pictures.
Slater believes he owns the rights to the photos; therefore claiming the company owes him $30,000 in lost earnings.
The foundation believes otherwise. According to the site, no one owns the copyright, not even the monkey who took the photo, as a non-human being took the photograph. In fact, the website has a notice by the image that says: "This file is in the public domain because, as the work of a non-human animal, it has no human author in whom copyright is vested."
"It's all based on a technicality," said Slater. "I own the photo but because the monkey pressed the trigger and took the photo, they're claiming the monkey owns the copyright. There's a lot more to copyright than who pushes the trigger on the camera."
"Nothing gives Wikimedia the right to decide who owns the copyright of the image and give people permission to use it free," he said.
Slater's argument is that he was responsible for the setting up of the shot, and that foundation made its decision based on press stories rather than facts.
"It looked like they were already posing for the camera when one hit the button. The sound got his attention and he kept pressing it. At first it scared the rest of them away but they soon came back. I wish I could have stayed longer as he probably would have taken a full family album."
The monkey took hundreds of photos before the photographer retrieved his camera, enough to make a family album.
Wikimedia Commons has not commented on the monkey incident.
