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ARTICLE · 09 AUGUST 2011

Author! Author! Can Monkeys Own Copyrights In Self-Portraits?

Foley Hoag LLP
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No, monkeys can’t own copyrights. But please read on. This relatively simple answer to a question nobody is seriously asking hasn’t prevented the emergence of a strange copyright controversy over a series of monkey-taken photographs, including the self-portrait on the left.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Foley Hoag LLP
Foley Hoag LLP
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No, monkeys can't own copyrights. But please read on. This relatively simple answer to a question nobody is seriously asking hasn't prevented the emergence of a strange copyright controversy over a series of monkey-taken photographs, including the self-portrait on the left.

Wildlife photographer David Slater was visiting a North Sulawesi national park in Indonesia when he left his camera unattended. A crested black macaque grabbed the camera and managed to snap some stunning images. The photographs ended up in the July 5 edition of the UK's Daily Mail, some of them bearing the copyright notices of the Caters News Agency.

That's when things started to get weird.

Online magazine Techdirt reprinted the photographs a couple of days later, expressed doubt as to whether Caters could actually own the copyright and queried: "Can a Monkey License its Copyrights to a News Agency?"

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