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PETA and photographer reach settlement over monkey selfie copyright

Accepted submission by takyon at 2017-09-12 16:47:41
Digital Liberty

PETA and wildlife photographer David Slater have reached a settlement [peta.org] over the ownership of a photograph taken by an Indonesian macaque monkey named Naruto:

PETA; photographer David Slater; his company, Wildlife Personalities, Ltd.; and self-publishing platform Blurb, Inc., have reached a settlement of the "monkey selfie" litigation. As a part of the arrangement, Slater has agreed to donate 25 percent of any future revenue derived from using or selling the monkey selfies to charities that protect the habitat of Naruto and other crested macaques in Indonesia.

According to a joint statement, "PETA and David Slater agree that this case raises important, cutting-edge issues about expanding legal rights for nonhuman animals, a goal that they both support, and they will continue their respective work to achieve this goal."

General Counsel for PETA Jeff Kerr told the New York Times [nytimes.com] that he did not know how much money Slater made on the photos in the past, but also that PETA is glad Naruto will benefit from the images in the future.

A federal judge previously dismissed the case, but PETA appealed. PETA has dropped its appeal so the question of nonhuman ownership of "intellectual property" will not be answered by a higher court.

Also at Ars Technica [arstechnica.com].

Previously: Monkey Selfie Case May Undo Evolution of the Web [soylentnews.org]


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