Copyright Protection Of Monkey Selfies And Other Non-Human Works

Introduction

In recent weeks, the media has been reporting on the ongoing copyright dispute between British wildlife photographer David Slater and Wikimedia, the non-profit foundation behind Wikipedia. In 2011, Mr. Slater was in Indonesia taking pictures of crested black macaques when one of the monkeys grabbed his camera (presumably while it was left unattended) and took hundreds of selfies with it, including the now-famous monkey selfie.

The copyright dispute arose after Wikimedia added the monkey selfie image to Wikimedia Commons, a collection of images and videos that are free to use by anyone online. When Mr. Slater complained to Wikimedia, alleging that he owned the copyright to the image, the Wikimedia editors took the position that he had no copyright since the monkey itself took the picture.