Last Updated on 08/22/2014 by Chris Gampat
Image from the Wikimedia Commons
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According to a report from Ars Technica, the US Copyright regulators are ruling on the side of Wikipedia that a selfie taken by a monkey cannot be copyrighted. The primate “borrowed” a camera from a photographer, who then tried to copyright the selfie image. Photographer David Slater tried to make the claim that the image was his, but in a stand for what could arguably be called animal rights, the US Copyright office decided that a photograph taken by a monkey is unprotected intellectual property.
With that said, the image remains part of the Wikimedia Commons and the delightful dopey monkey’s face can once again go viral all over the net.
So how did this all start? Well, when the image was added to the Commons, apparently Slater went after them. But according to the Telegraph, Wikimedia fought back and said that the monkey owns the selfie. We can only imagine lawyers in the room trying to say this with a straight face.
This brings up the question now: with dog and cat selfie apps out there, who is the owner of the image?
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