We can't believe this copyright case on a monkey 'selfie!' A british wildlife photographer is locked in a dispute with Wikipedia after it refused to remove his famous image of a 'monkey selfie' as they claim the photographer doesn't own the copyright.
So who does own the copyright? (This monkey business makes even music copyright look simple!)
In short, photographer David Slater was trying to capture the perfect photo of a crested black macaque during his trip to Indonesia in 2011 when one of the monkeys 'hijacked' his camera. The images then went on to make headlines around the world.
View Monkey Images
Under copyright law, the owner of a photograph is the person who takes it.
In this case, the 'person' who took the photograph is the monkey. Does this mean a monkey owns copyright?
According to Wikipedia, animals cannot have copyright to the image 'falls into the public domain'.
The photographer doesn't agree with this and has opened a dispute with Wikipedia and considering taking legal action. Mr Slater says "Now Wikipedia are using the image on their website for free which means people are just taking it off there potentially costing me thousands of pounds in sales."
We think all this monkey copyright business is very complicated, make your own decision by reading the full article.
Read Full Monkey Article
Avoid getting yourself in a sticky situation with copyright by reading the ins and outs of music copyright.
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