A rare crested macaque monkey who snapped a well-known, grinning "selfie" should be declared the photo's owner and receive damages for copyright infringement after it was used in a wildlife book, animal rights activists argued in a federal lawsuit filed on Tuesday.
Naruto, a six-year-old macaque who lives free in the Tangkoko Reserve on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, took the image and several others about four years ago using a camera left unattended by British photographer David Slater, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said in the suit.
The so-called Monkey Selfies that resulted came from "a series of purposeful and voluntary actions by Naruto, unaided by Slater," said the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
"Naruto has the right to own and benefit from the copyright ... in the same manner and to the same extent as any other author," the suit said. (Link to 'selfie' published by PETA:bit.ly/1V8Hnnl)
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4 comments:
Our judicial system has failed completely . This is pure BS at best , wasting tax payers time dollars .
PETA just wants the money, they will claim he can't control his moneies and will ask to be his conservator!
It's bad enough that corporations are considered to be people under the law, but monkeys? Show me that the animal is competent to manage his own business affairs.
Soon monkeys will be granted the same rights as humans, and then some fool will want to marry one.
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