Monkey selfie
However, when we looked into it more closely, we saw that it was about the above photo of a monkey. The photo appeared in one of our blog posts about a legal debate in the U.S. In the jungles of Indonesia, a monkey had snatched the camera of photographer David Slater and taken a large number of photos, including some stunning selfies. When American media started reporting on the case and used this selfie for illustration, Slater objected. The photographer claimed the rights to the photo and demanded compensation.
The Monkey’s bank account
This sparked an interesting discussion: who actually owns the copyrights? Do they belong to photographer Slater? Hmmm, after all he didn’t take the photo—the monkey did! Slater himself had admitted that. Since the stock photo agency kept insisting, we decided to ask for the monkey’s bank account. After all, that €370.56 should go to the rightful owner.
Animals do not have copyright
Apparently, our email also prompted the stock photo agency to look into the matter more deeply. Recently, we were informed that the agency is dropping its claim against Chiever. And rightly so, of course. It is generally accepted that animals cannot hold copyright. Therefore, the rights to this photo fall into the public domain and the photo can be used by anyone. Case closed. So, on rare occasions, you can get away with grabbing a photo from the internet without consequences.
Bas Kist
