A curious monkey with a toothy grin and a knack for pressing a camera button was back in the spotlight on Wednesday as a US federal appeals court heard arguments on whether an animal can hold a copyright to selfies.
A 45-minute hearing before a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco attracted crowds of law students and curious citizens who often burst into laughter.
The federal judges also chuckled at times at the novelty of the case, which involves a male monkey named Naruto that is unaware of the fuss.
Andrew Dhuey, attorney for British nature photographer David Slater, said “monkey see, monkey sue” is not good law under any federal act.
Slater could not afford the airfare to San Francisco to attend the hearing.
He also cannot afford to replace his broken camera equipment, has no money to pay Dhuey, who has been defending him since 2015, and is currently exploring other ways to earn income.
Slater has long maintained that the “selfies” were the result of his ingenuity in coaxing the monkeys into pressing the shutter release while looking into the lens, after he struggled to get them to keep their eyes open for a wide-angle close up.
“It wasn’t serendipitous monkey behavior,” he said. “It required a lot of knowledge on my behalf, a lot of perseverance, sweat and anguish and all that stuff.”
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sued Slater and San Francisco-based self-publishing company Blurb, which published the book Wildlife Personalities that includes the monkey selfies, for copyright infringement.
It sought a court order in 2015 allowing it to administer all proceeds from the photographs taken in a wildlife reserve in Sulawesi, Indonesia, to benefit the monkey.
Slater has said the British copyright for the photographs obtained by his company, Wildlife Personalities, should be honored.
PETA attorney David Schwarz argued that Naruto was accustomed to cameras and took the selfies when he saw himself in the reflection of the lens.
A federal judge last year ruled against PETA and Naruto, saying the monkey lacked the right to sue because there was no indication that US Congress intended to extend copyright protection to animals.
Throughout Wednesday’s hearing, Schwarz pushed back, arguing that the case came down to one simple fact: photographs can be copyrighted and Naruto is the author.
The judges grilled him on why PETA has status to represent Naruto and said that “having genuine care for the animal” is not enough to establish “next friend” relationship, which is required to represent it in court.
The judges did not issue a ruling on Wednesday.
An attorney for Blurb also raised the question of whether PETA has even identified the right monkey — something that Slater disputes.
“I know for a fact that [the monkey in the photograph] is a female and it’s the wrong age,” he said. “I’m bewildered at the American court system. Surely it matters that the right monkey is suing me.”
Additional reporting by the Guardian
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