In important copyright legislation news of the day, the US copyright office has let the whole primate world down by refusing to recognise a member of their species as a documented photographer.
By now you know the story set up; a few years back a (rather dishy) photographer named David Slater went on a working trip to Indonesia when a cheeky black macaque monkey grabbed his camera and took what has been described (by us, right now) as 'the selfie of the century'.
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Things turned sour when one Tomasz Kozlowski then posted the picture on Wikipedia without Slater’s consent claiming that ‘The work did not originate from Mr. Slater as by his own admission he did not take the picture, the monkey did. However monkeys can’t and don’t own copyright.’ And unfortunately for Slater, the courts agreed with Kozlowski and he lost all rights to the photo, but more criminally, so did the monkey.
This is obviously gutting for Slater, who claims he’s lost £10,000 over it, but TBH we’re more concerned about the monkey – who we’re going to call Sal, because we feel like someone needs to recognise that Sal is a monkey with a personality and feelings and not just a money making object. Who says monkeys can’t hold copyright? Who knows what kind of monkey mansion Sal’s currently planning for himself and his seven wives while he waits for the reward from his shot to come in to his little monkey bank account?
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We’re guessing internet access isn’t all that hot in the Indonesian jungle so if anyone’s got access to Sal, or knows him personally, please do get him to check his Facebook and/or CNN to find out this latest development in his case. We’d hate for him to end up broke after prematurely investing in that banana farm in Bali.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.