Although this sounds rather funny, the issues behind it are serious. If a monkey grabs a camera and manages to take pictures with it, can the camera owner sell the resulting photos? A photographer in this situation says yes, several large websites say the photos are public domain.
Copyright law in most countries states that whomever takes a photo has the rights to it (unless its a photo of something already copyrighted, like artwork, or it was a work for hire). What happens when the photographer isn't human? Wildlife photographer David Slater put his camera down in Indonesia one day, and then discovered a crested black macaque clicking away with it. Some of the resulting photos have since become famous. Slater has waged battles against several web sites (notably Wikipedia) containing the photos, claiming they are his property. The websites counter that, since Slater himself did not take the pictures, they are actually public domain. Read more about it here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/08/06/if-a-monkey-takes-a-selfie-in-the-forest-who-owns-the-copyright-no-one-says-wikimedia/
What's your take?
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Nice selfie.
mashable article
So the US copyright office updated it's rules to state more explicitly "The Office will not register works produced by nature, animals or plants"
So that's it - the monkey selfie is public domain. (US copyright eventually seems to override every one else...)
It seems a very gray area - if the photographer had set up a auto timer and got lucky with the same shot - in copyright... the monkey hit's the button not in copyright.
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