Copyright law can lead to some pretty strange and
unusual legal situations, and possibly one of the most unusual on
record took place over a monkey selfie. Glenn Duker, solicitor and lawyer, explains.
Professional wildlife photographer David Slater
went to Indonesia in 2011 to capture images of the local creatures.
While getting his camera and other equipment ready, his photo shoot was
hijacked by a mischievous monkey – a crested black macaque – which
grabbed his camera and took a series of selfies. The resulting images
were absolute gold – funny, cute, and a one-in-a-million event.
Unsurprisingly, as soon as the photos landed on the internet, they went
viral.
However, the trouble started when the photos
eventually ended up on Wikipedia – and more specifically, the Wikipedia
Commons, which collects photos and images it considers to be in the
public domain and therefore free for anyone to use. This angered
Slater, who considered the photo to be under his copyright. In his
point of view, he was the ‘author’ of the photo and should be
compensated whenever it was reproduced. He demanded that Wikipedia take
it down.
However, Wikipedia responded that technically, the
monkey was the author. Therefore, because non-human authors can’t own
copyright under US law, it was owned by no-one. In their argument,
Slater had not contributed enough to the photograph to grant him
ownership of the copyright – as in their definition, an author has
“contributed to the expressive content”.
Slater is aggrieved and feels that Wikipedia’s
editors have “a communistic view of life” and are trying to push a
political agenda. He has urged people to stop using the site, although
it appears his pleas have been largely unsuccessful. In the meantime,
the photograph continues to be widely distributed and enjoyed by
internet users around the world.
If you find yourself facing a battle over
intellectual property and copyright, lawyer Glenn Duker is a seasoned
professional you can turn to for trustworthy assistance and advice.
Visit today:- http://glenndukerleaselawyer.com.au/
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