August 16, 2016 Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Trademark / Litigation

Do Monkeys Have the Same Copyright Interests as Humans?

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is not backing down in its fight for copyrights for monkeys. This fight began about five years ago when a photographer, David Slater, was in Indonesia taking pictures of monkeys when Naruto, a now famous monkey, grabbed his camera to snap a selfie. Since then, Naruto’s renowned “Monkey Selfie” has appeared on websites and in a book.

PETA sued Slater arguing that Naruto has the same rights in his photograph as any human would have in their …

August 13, 2014 Copyright / Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Trademark

Copyright Conundrum: Photographer Accuses Wikimedia of Monkey Business

British Photographer, David Slater is irate over Wikimedia’s inclusion of his photograph in Wikimedia Commons, an online archive of royalty-free images. Slater submitted a request for its removal but Wikimedia has adamantly refused to take it down, stating that Slater has no claim on the image as he did not take it; a monkey did.

In 2011, Slater traveled to Indonesia with his photography equipment to capture the crested black macaques in their natural habitat. After he left his camera unattended, some of the monkeys …