It is with deep sadness that I have to report that we won’t be seeing any monkey travel bloggers or fashion influencers in the near future. On Monday, a federal appeals court voted unanimously that animals cannot sue for copyright protection, after photographer David Slater published several photos of an Indonesian macaque that took selfies with his phone in 2011. Talk about monkey see, monkey do.
As the Los Angeles Times reports, it wasn’t the monkey, a seven-year-old crested macaque named Naruto, that sued. An animal rights group sued on the monkey’s behalf, asserting it owned the copyright as the auteur of said selfies. However, the three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals wasn’t having it. As Judge Carlos Bea, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, wrote, “We must determine whether a monkey may sue humans, corporations, and companies for damages and injunctive relief arising from claims of copyright infringement.” Judge Bea continued, “We conclude that this monkey — and all animals, since they are not human — lacks statutory standing under the Copyright Act.”
No word on how Naruto feels about the verdict. Naruto took the selfies when Slater left his camera unattended at a wildlife reserve in Indonesia. Slater was subsequently sued by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) in 2015. Slater settled out of court, but apparently, this is the way the 9th Circuit felt was a good way to spend our tax dollars. “The concept of expanding actual property rights—and rights broadly—to animals necessitates resolving what duties also come with those rights,” wrote Judge N. Randy Smith, "and, because animals cannot communicate in our language, who stands in their shoes?”
