Monkey 'selfies' spark copyright dispute
8/7/2014LONDON — A series of “selfies” taken by Indonesian monkeys has sparked a copyright argument between a British photographer and Wikipedia.
Photographer David Slater had asked for the portraits of crested black macaque monkeys taken in 2011 to be removed from the web site, arguing that he owns the copyright to the images.
Slater told the BBC that although the monkeys pressed the button, he had set the self-portraits up by framing them and setting the camera on a tripod.
But Wikimedia Foundation, the group behind the free information-sharing site, rejected Slater’s request because he didn’t take the photos. It said today no one owned the copyright to the images, because under U.S. law, non-humans — the monkeys in this case — couldn’t have copyright.