In 2011, David J. Slater was photographing an endangered monkey species, the Celebes crested macaque, in Indonesia. He deliberately left his camera tripod unattended with an accessible trigger to try to obtain what he calls a “monkey selfie.” Slater was successful, and he started licensing the photographs under the assumption that he was the owner. In the years afterward, internet sites were using the photos, claiming that they were in the public domain, both because animals cannot obtain copyrights and because Slater was not the initial creator of the images.
According to the U.S. Copyright Office, copyrights can cover literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works, an expression of an idea and not an idea itself. They give the owner of the work the right to reproduce, distribute or display their work. In December 2014, the U. S. Copyright Office declared that any work created by a non-human party was not eligible to obtain a copyright. In September 2015, however, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the monkeys should own the rights to the photos they took of themselves.
According to Assistant Dean for the College of Business Administration Jim Shelton, the monkeys who took the selfies should not have rights over the photographs.
“In order to have copyright, you would have to have rights,” Shelton said. “Animals simply do not have rights. The rights that our government guarantees us do not extend to animals. We treat animals humanely because we’re human, not because they have rights.”
Freshman photographer Sterling McMichael called this lawsuit idiotic.
“The monkey doesn’t know the photo exists,” McMichael said. “The monkeys had no idea what they were doing when they were taking the selfies. Copyrights aren’t such a big deal, and sometimes the distributer can even claim rights to a photo. When it comes to this idiotic lawsuit, PETA is just trying to get more publicity.”
Junior Katrina Weir said that she usually supports PETA, but that in this instance, she feels they have gone too far.
“I’m all for animal rights,” Weir said. “I don’t get how someone could be so heartless as to take their anger, frustrations or boredom out on something so helpless and innocent. But when it comes to the lawsuit, I think they’re being a little over the top. I agree 100 percent that animals have rights and feelings but I think they could care less if pictures were posted of them, even if they did take them themselves.”
Shelton said he does not understand the importance of this lawsuit.
“To me this is a non-issue,” Shelton said. “I’m surprised it has not been thrown out of the court, and I’m assuming it will be.”
